e
second position--that Mankind, as a whole, have become more
heterogeneous--is so obvious as scarcely to need illustration. Every
work on Ethnology, by its divisions and subdivisions of races, bears
testimony to it. Even were we to admit the hypothesis that Mankind
originated from several separate stocks, it would still remain true,
that as, from each of these stocks, there have sprung many now widely
different tribes, which are proved by philological evidence to have had
a common origin, the race as a whole is far less homogeneous than it
once was. Add to which, that we have, in the Anglo-Americans, an example
of a new variety arising within these few generations; and that, if we
may trust to the description of observers, we are likely soon to have
another such example in Australia.

On passing from Humanity under its individual form, to Humanity as
socially embodied, we find the general law still more variously
exemplified. The change from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous is
displayed equally in the progress of civilisation as a whole, and in the
progress of every tribe or nation; and is still going on with increasing
rapidity. As we see in existing barbarous tribes, society in its first
and lowest form is a homogeneous aggregation of individuals having like
powers and like functions: the only marked difference of function being
that which accompanies difference of sex. Every man is warrior, hunter,
fisherman, tool-maker, builder; every woman performs the same
drudgeries; every family is self-sufficing, and save for purposes of
aggression and defence, might as well live apart from the rest. Very
early, however, in the process of social evolution, we find an incipient
differentiation between the governing and the governed. Some kind of
chieftainship seems coeval with the first advance from the state of
separate wandering families to that of a nomadic tribe. The authority of
the strongest makes itself felt among a body of savages as in a herd of
animals, or a posse of schoolboys. At first, however, it is indefinite,
uncertain; is shared by others of scarcely inferior power; and is
unaccompanied by any difference in occupation or style of living: the
first ruler kills his own game, makes his own weapons, builds his own
hut, and economically considered, does not differ from others of his
tribe. Gradually, as the tribe progresses, the contrast between the
governing and the governed grows more decided. Supreme power be