10 seek for precedents. How many fiery innov~tors are mere copyists of bygone revolutions. The spirit .of routine, originating in superstition, indolence, and cowardice, has in all times been the mainstay of oppression. In primitive human societies, it, was cleverly turned to account by priests and military chiefs. They perpetuated customs useful only to themselves, and succeeded in imposing them on the whole tribe. So long as this conservative spirit could be exploited so as to assure the chief in his encro.achments upon individual liberty, so long a,s·th..e only inequalities between men wih-e the w.ork of nature, and these were not increased a hundred-fold by the concllntration of power and wealth, there was n~ need for law, and the formidable paraphernalia of tribunals and ever-augmenting penalties to enforce it. But as seoiety became more and more divided into two hostile classes, one seeking to establish its domination, the other struggling to ooca.pe, tho strife began. Now the conqueror was in a hurry to.secure the results of his actiona in a permanent form, he tried to place them beyond question, to make them holy and venerable by every means in his pmnir. Daw made its appearance under the sanction of the priest, and the warrior's club was placed at its service. Its office was to render immutable such customs as were to the advantage of the dominant minority. Military authority undertook to ensure obedience. This new fonction was a fresh guarantee to the power of the warrior; now he had not only mere brute force at his service; he wa.s the defender of law. If law, however, presented nothing but a. collection of proscriptions serviceable to rulers, it would find some difficuity in ins.uring acceptance and obedience. Well, the legislators confounded in one code- the two currents of custom, of which we have just been speaking, the maxims which represent principles of morality !and social union wrought out as a result of life in common, and the mandates, which are meant to ensure ex.terna.J . existence to inequality. Customs, absolutely essential to the very being of society, are, in t-he code, cle-verly intermingled with usages imposed by the ruling caste, and both claim equal respect from the crowd. "Do not !,{ill," says .the code, and Biblioteca Gino Bianco
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTExMDY2NQ==