carry on
even the rudest form of barter, such as the various tribes must have
practised from an early day.

As to political ideas, even the crudest tribal life was based on
certain conceptions of ownership, at least of tribal ownership, and the
application of the principle of likeness and difference to which we have
already referred. Each tribe, of course, differed in some regard from
other tribes, and the recognition of these differences implied in
itself a political classification. A certain tribe took possession of a
particular hunting-ground, which became, for the time being, its home,
and over which it came to exercise certain rights. An invasion of this
territory by another tribe might lead to war, and the banding together
of the members of the tribe to repel the invader implied both a
recognition of communal unity and a species of prejudice in favor of
that community that constituted a primitive patriotism. But this unity
of action in opposing another tribe would not prevent a certain rivalry
of interest between the members of the same tribe, which would show
itself more and more prominently as the tribe increased in size. The
association of two or more persons implies, always, the ascendency of
some and the subordination of others. Leadership and subordination are
necessary correlatives of difference of physical and mental endowment,
and rivalry between leaders would inevitably lead to the formation of
primitive political parties. With the ultimate success and ascendency
of one leader, who secures either absolute power or power modified in
accordance with the advice of subordinate leaders, we have the germs of
an elaborate political system--an embryo science of government.

Meanwhile, the very existence of such a community implies the
recognition on the part of its members of certain individual rights,
the recognition of which is essential to communal harmony. The right of
individual ownership of the various articles and implements of every-day
life must be recognized, or all harmony would be at an end. Certain
rules of justice--primitive laws--must, by common consent, give
protection to the weakest members of the community. Here are the
rudiments of a system of ethics. It may seem anomalous to speak of this
primitive morality, this early recognition of the principles of right
and wrong, as having any relation to science. Yet, rightly considered,
there is no incongruity in such a citation. There cannot well be