!

amongst the favage inhabitants of North America,
and upon the coaft of Africa. These nations I
confider as the amplifications of fo many fingle
families; or as derived from the junction of two
or three families, whom fociety in war
or the
approach of fome common danger, had united.
Suppofe a country to have been firft peopled by
fhipwreck on its coafts, or by emigrants or exiles
from a neighbouring country; the new fettlers
Laving no enemy to provide againft, and occu
pied with the care of their perfonal fubfiftence,
would think little of digefting a fyftem of laws,
of contriving a form of government, or indeed
of any political union whatever; but each fettler
would remain at the head of his own family,
and each family would include all of every age
and generation who were defcended from him.
So
many
of these families as were holden toge-
ther after the death of the original ancestor, by
the reafons and in the method above recited,
would wax, as the individuals were multiplied,
into tribes, clans, hordes, or nations, fimilar to
thofe into which the ancient inhabitants of
many
countries are known to have been divided, and
which are ftill found, wherever the state of foci-
ety and manners is immature and uncultivated.

Nor need we be furprised at the early existence in the world of fome vaft empires, or at the rapidity with which they advanced to their greatnefs, from comparatively fmall and obfcure originals. Whilft the inhabitants of fo many countries were broken into numerous communities, unconnected, and oftentimes contending with each other; before experience had taught thefe little ftates to fee their own danger in their neighbours' ruin; or had inftructed them in the neceffity of refifting the aggrandizement of an afpiring power, by alliances and timely preparations; in this condition of civil policy, a particular tribe which by any means had got the ftart of the reft in ftrength, or difcipline, and happened to fall under the conduct of an ambitious chief, by directing their first attempts to the part where fuccefs was moft fecure, and by affuming, as they went along, those whom they conquered into a fhare of their future enterprifes, might foon gather a force, which would infallibly overbear any oppofition that the feattered power and unprovided ftate of fuch enemies could make to the progrefs of their victories.

Laftly,

Laftly, our theory affords a prefumption, that the earliest governments were monarchies, because the government of families, and of armies, from which, according to our account, civil government derived its inftitution, and probably its form, is univerfally monarchical.

CHAP. II.

HOW SUBJECTION TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT IS

MAINTAINED.

OULD we view our own fpecies from a

COULD

distance, or regard mankind with the fame fort of observation with which we read the natural history, or remark the manners, of any other animal, there is nothing in the human character which would more furprise us, than the almost univerfal fubjugation of ftrength to weaknessthan to fee many millions of robust men, in the complete use and exercise of their personal faculties, and without any defect of courage, waiting upon the will of a child, a woman, a driveller, or a lunatic. And although, when we suppose a vast empire in absolute subjection to one perfon, and that one depreffed beneath the level of his fpecies by infirmities, or vice, we fuppofe perhaps an extreme cafe; yet in all cafes, even in the most popular forms of civil government, the physical strength refides in the governed.

In what manner opinion thus prevails over ftrength, or how power, which naturally belongs to fuperior force, is maintained in oppofition to it; in other words, by what motives the many are induced to fubmit to the few, becomes an enquiry which lies at the root of almost every political fpeculation. It removes, indeed, but does not refolve the difficulty, to fay, that civil governments are now-a-days almoft univerfally upheld by standing armies: for the question still returns, How are thefe armies themfelves kept in fubjection, or made to obey the commands, and carry on the designs, of the prince or state which employs them?

Now although we should look in vain for any fingle reafon which will account for the general fubmiffion of mankind to civil government, yet it may not be difficult to affign for every clafs and character in the community, confiderations powerful enough to diffuade each from any attempts to refift established authority. Every man has his motive, though not the fame. In this as in other inftances, the conduct is fimilar, but the principles which produce it extremely

various.

There are three diftinctions of character, into which the fubjects of a ftate may be divided;