| | From "The Power of Ideas" (pp 18-20)
of The God of the Machine
Science is the rule of reason. Instead of being resigned to
inexorable destiny or blind chance, it might
be possible, by discerning the causation of events, to order
them at will, and bring about what men desire. An abstraction
will move a mountain; nothing can withstand an idea. The
Greeks had found the lever.
Apparently events mocked them. While they philosophized,
the mountain moved of itself in an avalanche; Rome over-
powered them. On the face of it, this would seem a victory
of gross substance, a refutation of the concealed premise of
the superiority of mind over matter. It was not; on the con-
trary, even in its immediate incidence it was a vindication
of the intellect. Rome had evolved an abstraction, a political
concept, which was likewise among the universals. Rome had
the idea of law.
All nations have had laws; the most primitive sav-
ages were bound by custom, and a binding custom is a
law. A taboo is a petrified law. Primitive peoples believe
that their laws are permanent even though arbitrary, like
"the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not."
The effective meaning is that custom may alter only by
imperceptible degrees, if it is to remain valid. Custom cannot
be new. The attendant drawback is that if a ruling custom is
broken abruptly, no substitute is at once available. What may
happen, by war, pestilence, or migration, or even by innova-
tions otherwise beneficial, is a period of confusion, in which
habit is interrupted and expedients tried; but the resultant
institutions cannot endure unless they are imbued with tra-
ditional sentiments. Of course the fabric of tradition is never
wholly destroyed. However, since custom cannot meet change
quickly, and above an elementary level of culture there will
be occasional necessity for deciding a course of action which
must affect the group, an informal council and a leader com-
prise the obvious development. These seem to suffice for a
nomad band of hunters. The next stage, either the pastoral
nomad, or primitive agriculture, calls for more definite or-
ganization of a permanent character 3 to secure continuity,
the chief's position was allowed to become more or less
hereditary, with the patriarchal clan system. The clan was a
permanent family. Many languages still testify to this con-
cept. If a distinction is to be drawn between a chief and a
king, by modern usage it would consist in the degree of
formal organization, marked by the appointment or recogni-
tion of officials with fixed rank and specified duties. The
simultaneous evolution, alongside of secular government, of
a priesthood with moral authority, is to be observed. It had
its own significance. "Division of powers," or opposed agen-
cies of moral authority and physical power, is a natural
feature of society -y hence it is also necessary in the form of
government to secure stability.
But all of these forms of association were effective only in
appropriate conditions, and had their innate defects. Custom
could not deal with the unexpected. Leadership will not serve
with organized institutions. Monarchy becomes despotic. Each
tyfe of association is suitable to a certain mode of conversion
of energyy and will either break down or become fused into
rigidity when it is made to receive a higher potential than
it can accommodate.
When a nation has experienced the conditions in which
custom is proved perishable, leadership disastrous, and mon-
archy oppressive, reason must define the prime source of
authority, to invest it with viable form.
By such a sequence, probably foreshortened, Rome be-
came a political laboratory. What went into the crucible must
be deduced from the myths, legends, traditions, and institu-
tions which took shape in the obscure centuries of the city's
early history. It does not appear that Rome was ever primi-
tively barbaric, if the city had its inception in trade, using
money, (Familiarity with the function of money enabled
Rome to govern an empire in due course. It is said that
the Spartans, being unaccustomed to money, were quickly
demoralized when they abandoned their bare subsistence
economy. They could not maintain the minimum of honesty
in contractual relations, having been bred to communism. At
the lowest level, they didn't even understand the limits of graft.)
and holding land as private property; these are elements of
an advanced civilization. And the fables are frequently inconsistent,
as would be the case if they were partly
imported and intermingled. Such tales as those of Romulus
and Remus and the rape of the Sabine women cannot be
accepted literally; nor need they be of local origin. Bride
stealing belongs to a barbaric culture, in which it is no dis-
honor. The belief that the she-wolf suckled Rome must be
still older, and might be derived from a savage totem; but
not necessarily, for when Europe was barbarian, an outlaw
was a "wolf's-head," a very ancient figure of speech. The
suggestion in all three stories is that Rome was always more
or less an open city, admitting refugees, exiles, or immigrants.
They would bring in varied customs which must be recon-
ciled under general rules.
In any event, the feature of asylum certainly became in-
corporated in the Roman social and legal system; and
ultimately created the special character of Roman citizenship.
Distinctively, one had to be born a Greek, but one could become a Roman.
(Edited by Ted Keer on 10/08, 9:14am)
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