f. They could not help seeing, nor could he, that they
were _his_ men. And how natural it was for them to rejoice in the fact
that they belonged to some one who was mightier than themselves, and
who identified his own prosperity with that of the tribe, and of every
individual in it who served it according to his will. Loyalty to the
beloved community became loyalty to the chief. But it is evident that
what mankind had caused to happen to the dog and the horse, the chief
had accomplished in regard to the human beings who had come under his
power. He had tamed them; they were no longer wild animals. They had
rendered up individual liberty and self-reliant independence such as
we see among many species of wild beasts. But instead, as the price of
obedience to a will outside their own, they had received a thousand
creature-comforts.

Only one more invention was needed to lift them to the highest and
latest stage of barbarism. Some one now hit upon the art of smelting
iron--the first invention that had not directly to do with the
supplying of food. By leaps and bounds the art of smelting iron
advanced man in the equipment of war, in the building of houses, roads,
and vehicles of transportation. Now what magnificent returns
individuals received for having surrendered their original liberty to
do as they pleased! After all, what would independent initiative have
been worth without fire or arrow or earthern kettle, or cow or horse or
wheel, or sword and shield? Who would not have forfeited the bare
birthright of empty (although healthy) independence for participation
in the ever richer conquest over the physical resources of Nature?

XVII. CIVILIZATION PROPER

But now at last, only ten thousand years ago, the event occurred which
put forever out of the question any possibility of prudence in any
waywardness of individual whim, or any deviation from the rule dictated
by the owner of things. This time the something that happened did not
cause an increase of man's mastery over physical Nature. It was,
instead, like that initial invention which turned apes into men. And
again, like spoken language, it was a device to facilitate
communication of mind with mind. In some one of the many groups of
beings who had learned the use of fire, arrows, pots, sheep, and
swords, some genius hit upon the idea of written signs as a medium of
communication with those distant in space, and as a means of
perpetuating a knowledge of the wil