pretend to say. But all of truth that the following pages contain will remain true in whatever way society began, or whatever may have been the antecedents of our race. The other extreme, however, of our inquiry is more difficult to mark. The stream of history not only broadens and deepens, but also divides as it flows down. I do not say that a history of Aryan civilization, or even a general history of the Aryan race, is an impossibility; but it is a task which I have no intention to undertake. All that I propose is to examine the structure of our archaic society, and to indicate, if I cannot fully trace, the process of its development. That development has, of course, varied with the circumstances of each people. I can but illustrate its mother form, and note the rudiments of our present institutions. I have thus to describe, first, the clan system, which was the original type of Aryan society; and, next, the rise of political society, and its relation to the earlier system. With the complete establishment of the later form my task is done, and I leave to others the narration of the complex fortunes of the State.
In all its leading characteristics—political, legal, religious, economic—archaic society presents a complete contrast to that in which we live. There was in it no central government, and consequently there were no political organs. There was no law to make, and there was none to be executed. There were neither parliaments, nor courts of justice, nor executive officers. There was no national church. The great bulk of property, not only as to its tenure, but as to its enjoyment, was in the hands—not of individuals, but of corporate households. There were few contracts, and no wills. Men lived according to their customs. They received their property from their fathers, and transmitted it to their heirs. They were protected, or, if need were, avenged, by the help of their kinsmen. There was, in
