ly be a
greater mistake. There are but comparatively few individuals in the
world who are so highly developed in their intellectual and moral
capacities, and in practical ability also, as to be competent to be a
law unto themselves in the general conduct of life. The great mass of
mankind, even in the most advanced communities, need still the guiding
hand of a wisely constituted and really paternal Government, and the
religious admonitions of a true priesthood. The greatest danger with
which Society is threatened in modern times, arises from the lack of
these essential concomitants of any high civilization. The degradation,
squalor, ignorance, and brutality of the lowest classes; the
irreverence, disrespect, dishonesty, and moral blindness of the middle
orders; and the apathy, heartlessness, unscrupulousness, selfishness,
cupidity, and irreligion of the upper stratum of Society, are alike due
to the absence of a rightly organized State, which should command the
allegiance, and of a rightly constituted Church, which should absorb the
devotion, of the whole community.

The Constitution of Society must be moulded with reference to the
character of the individuals in it. Of these, some are sagacious,
executive, intelligent, benevolent, sympathetic, philanthropic,
self-reliant; possessed of all the qualities, in fine, which inspire
respect and confidence in their fellow men, and cause them to be
recognized as leaders. Others are timid, ignorant, feeble-minded,
credulous, prone to lean upon others, hero worshippers; people whose
natural bent it is to follow some one in whom they put faith. The
sentiment of loyalty is inherent in the human breast, and will find an
object whereon to fasten. At one time it is an Alexander; then a
Washington, a Napoleon, or a Wellington; at another, a Clay, a Webster,
or a Grant. There are ranks and orders in Society as there are ranks and
orders among individuals. And as the inherent rank of an _individual_
is, as a general rule, recognized and accorded, no matter what may be
the social constitution of the land in which he lives, so it is with
_classes_. Theoretically, all individuals and orders are equal in the
United States. But the Law of Nature is stronger than the laws of man;
and the men and women of superior endowment in moral power, intellectual
force, or practical ability, receive the voluntary homage of those who
feel themselves to be inferior.

In considering the nature of the Insti