should descend into some meadow where a flock of
sheep were grazing and pounce upon a lame lamb which could not run away
with the others, tear its flesh, suck up its blood, and dress himself in
its skin. All this could not be called an affair undertaken in the
sheep's interest. And yet it might well conduce to their interest in the
end. For the savage, finding himself soon hungry again, and
insufficiently warm in that scanty garment, might attack the flock a
second time, and thereby begin to accustom himself, and also his
delighted family, to a new and more substantial sort of raiment and
diet. Suppose, now, a pack of wolves, or a second savage, or a disease
should attack those unhappy sheep. Would not their primeval enemy defend
them? Would he not have identified himself with their interests to this
extent, that their total extinction or discomfiture would alarm him
also? And in so far as he provided for their well-being, would he not
have become a good shepherd? If, now, some philosophic wether, a lover
of his kind, reasoned with his fellows upon the change in their
condition, he might shudder indeed at those early episodes and at the
contribution of lambs and fleeces which would not cease to be levied by
the new government; but he might also consider that such a contribution
was nothing in comparison with what was formerly exacted by wolves,
diseases, frosts, and casual robbers, when the flock was much smaller
than it had now grown to be, and much less able to withstand decimation.
And he might even have conceived an admiration for the remarkable wisdom
and beauty of that great shepherd, dressed in such a wealth of wool; and
he might remember pleasantly some occasional caress received from him
and the daily trough filled with water by his providential hand. And he
might not be far from maintaining not only the rational origin, but the
divine right of shepherds.

Such a savage enemy, incidentally turned into a useful master, is called
a conqueror or king. Only in human experience the case is not so simple
and harmony is seldom established so quickly. The history of Asia is
replete with examples of conquest and extortion in which a rural
population living in comparative plenty is attacked by some more
ferocious neighbour who, after a round of pillage, establishes a quite
unnecessary government, raising taxes and soldiers for purposes
absolutely remote from the conquered people's interests. Such a
government is nothing