still
to come a protestanism in social usages. Parallel, therefore, as is the
change to be wrought out, it seems not improbable that it may be wrought
out in an analogous way. That influence which solitary dissentients fail
to gain, and that perseverance which they lack, may come into existence
when they unite. That persecution which the world now visits upon them
from mistaking their nonconformity for ignorance or disrespect, may
diminish when it is seen to result from principle. The penalty which
exclusion now entails may disappear when they become numerous enough to
form visiting circles of their own. And when a successful stand has been
made, and the brunt of the opposition has passed, that large amount of
secret dislike to our observances which now pervades society, may
manifest itself with sufficient power to effect the desired
emancipation.

Whether such will be the process, time alone can decide. That community
of origin, growth, supremacy, and decadence, which we have found among
all kinds of government, suggests a community in modes of change also.
On the other hand, Nature often performs substantially similar
operations, in ways apparently different. Hence these details can never
be foretold.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, let us glance at the conclusions that have been reached. On
the one side, government, originally one, and afterwards subdivided for
the better fulfilment of its function, must be considered as having ever
been, in all its branches--political, religious, and
ceremonial--beneficial; and, indeed, absolutely necessary. On the other
side, government, under all its forms, must be regarded as subserving a
temporary office, made needful by the unfitness of aboriginal humanity
for social life; and the successive diminutions of its coerciveness in
State, in Church, and in Custom, must be looked upon as steps towards
its final disappearance. To complete the conception, there requires to
be borne in mind the third fact, that the genesis, the maintenance, and
the decline of all governments, however named, are alike brought about
by the humanity to be controlled: from which may be drawn the inference
that, on the average, restrictions of every kind cannot last much longer
than they are wanted, and cannot be destroyed much faster than they
ought to be.

Society, in all its developments, undergoes the process of exuviation.
These old forms which it successively throws off, have