ehind in the
progress of the race, and to many of them still clung the customs
practised thousands of years before. Those that went forward from this
first status grew by practice rather than by change of ideals. It is
the law of all progress that ideals are conservative, and that they can
be broken away from only by the procedure of actual practice.
Gradually the reign of customary law gave way to the laws framed by the
people. The family government gave way to the political; the
individual eventually became the political unit, and freedom of action
prevailed in the entire social body.

_The Greek and Roman Family Was Strongly Organized_.--In Greece and
Rome the family enlarged and formed the gens, {113} the gentes united
into a tribe, and the tribe passed into the nation. In all of this
formulated government the individual was represented by his family and
received no recognition except as a member of such. The tribal chief
became the king, or, as he is sometimes called, the patriarchal
president, because he presided over a band of equals in power, namely,
the assembled elders of the tribe. The heads of noble families were
called together to consider the affairs of government, and at a common
meal the affairs of the nation were discussed over viands and wine.
The king thus gathered the elders about him for the purpose of
considering measures to be laid before the people. The popular
assembly, composed of all the citizens, was called to sanction what the
king and the elders had decreed. Slowly the binding forms of
traditional usage were broken down, and the king and his people were
permitted to enact those laws which best served the immediate ends of
government. True, the old formal life of the family continued to
exist. There were the gentes, tribes, and phratries, or brotherhoods,
that still existed, and the individual entered the state in civil
capacity through his family. But by degrees the old family regime gave
way to the new political life, and sovereign power was vested in
monarchy, democracy, or aristocracy, according to the nature of the
sovereignty.

The functions or activities and powers of governments, which were
formerly vested in the patriarchal chief, or king, and later in king,
people, and council, gradually became separated and were delegated to
different authorities, though the sharp division of legislative,
judicial, and executive functions which characterizes our modern
governments di