llages, where industries other than
agriculture developed and closer social relations existed. The simple
organization of the village or the clan was not sufficient for such a
population, and a more intricate governmental system arose; but it seems
to have been simply an extension of the older system of chieftainship,
based on the family or paternal relation, and on the growth of religious
influence and priestly control. It seems, in fact, to have been through
the influence of religious ideas that men first rose to power and became
supreme over their fellows.

We have no concern here with the development of religious systems,
other than to say that in the primitive agricultural community a
succession of ideas of man's relation to the unseen arose, yielding, in
addition to the widespread ancestor worship, a system of shamanism, or
belief in the presence and power of malignant spirits, and one of
fetichism, which developed into mythology, or worship of the great
powers of nature. What we are concerned in is the fact that from these
religious conceptions a priesthood everywhere arose, beginning in the
simple conjurer or the healer by spells and incantations, and developing
into a priestly establishment whose leading members had a vigorous
control over the people through their beliefs, fears, and superstitions.

This priestly system was the basis of the first imperial organization.
Kingly authority was not gained at first through power over men's
bodies, but through influence over their minds. There is much reason to
believe that the chief of the clan or tribe, who led in its public
worship and was looked upon as the representative of its divine
ancestor, retained the influence thence arising as the tribe developed
into the nation, adding the power and position of the high priest to
that of the tribal chief.

There is abundant evidence that in this simple and direct manner the
imperial organization everywhere grew out of the primitive village and
patriarchal systems. In the early days of Egypt, before its era of
conquest began, the Pharaoh was the high priest of the nation, weak in
temporal, strong in spiritual power; and the political organization in
general probably grew out of the sacerdotal establishment. Very likely
the Babylonian kingdom was organized in the same manner, though wars and
changes of dynasty have obscured its early state. In China the patriarch
of a nomad horde became emperor of a nation retaining ance