Shall the State only strive to repress grave
disorders? or shall it take a paternal interest in its citizens, making
them virtuous and happy in spite of themselves?
155. ITS ORIGIN AND AUTHORITY.--In Parts III to VI we have seen how and
upon what basis the State has grown up. It is an organism, something that
lives and grows. It is not a machine, deliberately put together at a
definite time by some man or some group of men. The "social contract"
fanatic may have read history, but he has not understood it. Of
psychology he has no comprehension at all.
Herodotus, at some of whose stories we smile, was a wiser man. He writes:
"It appears certain to me, by a great variety of proofs, that Cambyses
was raving mad; he would not else have set himself to make a mock of holy
rites and long-established usages. For, if one were to offer men to
choose out of all the customs in the world such as seemed to them the
best, they would examine the whole number, and end by preferring their
own; so convinced are they that their own usages far surpass those of all
others.
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