Thus the general doctrine, that all kinds of government exercised over men were at first one government—­that the political, the religious, and the ceremonial forms of control are divergent branches of a general and once indivisible control—­begins to look tenable.  When, with the above facts fresh in mind, we read primitive records, and find that “there were giants in those days”—­when we remember that in Eastern traditions Nimrod, among others, figures in all the characters of giant king, and divinity—­when we turn to the sculptures exhumed by Mr. Layard, and contemplating in them the effigies of kings driving over enemies, trampling on prisoners, and adored by prostrate slaves, then observe how their actions correspond to the primitive names for the divinity, “the strong,” “the destroyer,” “the powerful one”—­when we find that the earliest temples were also the residences of the kings—­and when, lastly, we discover that among races of men still living there are current superstitions analogous to those which old records and old buildings indicate; we begin to realise the probability of the hypothesis that has been set forth.

Going back, in imagination, to the remote era when men’s theories of things were yet unformed; and conceiving to ourselves the conquering chief as dimly figured in ancient myths, and poems, and ruins; we may see that all rules of conduct whatever spring from his will.  Alike legislator and judge, all quarrels among his subjects are decided by him; and his words become the Law.  Awe of him is the incipient Religion; and his maxims furnish its first precepts.  Submission is made to him in the forms he prescribes; and these give birth to Manners.  From the first, time develops political allegiance and the administration of justice; from the second, the worship of a being whose personality becomes ever more vague, and the inculcation of precepts ever more abstract; from the third, forms of honour and the rules of etiquette.

In conformity with the law of evolution of all organised bodies, that general functions are gradually separated into the special functions constituting them, there have grown up in the social organism for the better performance of the governmental office, an apparatus of law-courts, judges, and barristers; a national church, with its bishops and priests; and a system of caste, titles, and ceremonies, administered by society at large.  By the first, overt aggressions are cognised and punished; by the second, the disposition to commit such aggressions is in some degree checked; by the third, those minor breaches of good conduct, which the others do not notice, are denounced and chastised.  Law and Religion control behaviour in its essentials:  Manners control it in its details.  For regulating those daily actions which are too numerous and too unimportant to be officially directed, there comes into play this subtler set of restraints.  And when we consider what these restraints are—­when we analyse the words, and phrases, and salutes employed, we see that in origin as in effect, the system is a setting up of temporary governments between all men who come in contact, for the purpose of better managing the intercourse between them.