he attempts of a
stronger and more highly civilized state to extend its dominion over a
weaker and more lawless one, are not, however, necessarily and always
of this character. Divine Providence, in making men gregarious in
nature, has given them an instinct of organization, which is as
intrinsic and as essential a characteristic of the human soul as
maternal love or the principle of self-preservation. The right,
therefore, of organizations of men to establish law and order among
themselves, and to extend these principles to other communities around
them, so far as such interpositions are really promotive of the
interests and welfare of those affected by them, rests on precisely
the same foundation as the right of the father to govern the child.
This foundation is the existence and universality of an instinctive
principle implanted by the Creator in the human heart; a principle
which we are bound to submit to, both because it is a fundamental and
constituent element in the very structure of man, and because its
recognition and the acknowledgment of its authority are absolutely
essential to his continued existence. Wherever law and order,
therefore, among men do not exist, it may be properly established and
enforced by any neighboring organization that has power to do it, just
as wherever there is a group of children they may be justly controlled
and governed by their father. It seems equally unnecessary to invent a
fictitious and wholly imaginary _compact_ to justify the jurisdiction
in the one case as in the other.

If the Scythians, therefore, had been in a state of confusion and
anarchy, Darius might justly have extended his own well-regulated and
settled government over them, and, in so doing, would have promoted
the general good of mankind. But he had no such design. It was a
desire for personal aggrandizement, and a love of fame and power,
which prompted him. He offered it as a pretext to justify his
invasion, that the Scythians, in former years, had made incursions
into the Persian dominions; but this was only a pretext. The
expedition was a wanton attack upon neighbors whom he supposed unable
to resist him, simply for the purpose of adding to his own already
gigantic power.

When Darius commenced his march from the river, the Scythians had
heard rumors of his approach. They sent, as soon as they were aware of
the impending danger, to all the nations and tribes around them, in
order to secure their alliance an