individuals of many species below the
level of man will respond to the cries of their kindred though they may
never have had a chance to know them. There is in these cases a
sympathetic bond that binds the kind together. It is with this
condition of the sympathies that the task of their further evolution is
transferred to man. Inheriting as he does the essential motives of the
lower beings through which he came to his present estate, man proceeds
to deal with them in a manner which is determined by the peculiar
rational power which belongs to him. In place of the blind following of
the emotions which characterizes the sympathetic movements of the lower
animals, we find that even among the most primitive and lowly savages
rules of conduct are instituted which serve to direct the ways in which
the individual shall act with regard to his fellows. In almost all cases
these rules are much intermingled with the religion of the people;
usually they rest upon a body of advancing public opinion which
amplifies the motives and, in turn, is enlarged by their growth. As time
goes on and the folk attain the stage of records, these rules of conduct
become definite laws which at first are based on religious ordinances;
but in time they are, in the latest stage of social growth, brought into
the state of ordinary statutes which, while they may have some religious
sanction, are supported by the machinery of the secular government.

After the first rude work of shaping the body of ancient experience into
law was done, there remained the larger and more difficult task of
continuing the development of the sympathetic motives with a
corresponding amplification of customs and statutes so that the steps of
advance should be duly embodied in these rules of conduct. The stages of
this purely human attainment have been slowly taken, the onward way has
been effectively won but by few peoples. A part of the slowness in
advance in the enlargement of the sympathetic motives beyond the stage
which has been attained in the life below the human grade is to be
accounted for in the fact that no sooner are laws formed than they
become in a way sacred. If they be cast in the religious mould their
sanctity may be such that they are almost beyond the reach of
modification; even when they are secular the reverence for the wisdom of
the forefathers naturally leads men to regard them as the ark of safety.
Thus it has come about that the codification of the ancie