its general necessity with the accidental circumstances connected with
the selection of rulers. The first ruler may have been appointed by
God; or, as is more likely, he may have owed his choice to his own
brutal self-assertion. But this has no more to do with the origin of
the function of government, than the present methods of ambitious {151}
politicians have to do with the constitutional office of a republican
presidency. Government meets a moral need; and no man has ever ruled
over men who has not met that need, however cruel and greedy he may
have been in his private motives.

From the very beginning, then, government exists by virtue of the good
that it does. But there have been enormous differences in the price
that men have paid for that good; and this constitutes its variable and
progressive factor. Tyranny is, in the long run, the most unstable
form of government, because it grossly overestimates the amount that
men will pay for the benefit of order. In the _Antigone_ of Sophocles,
Creon thus justifies his rule:

Than lawlessness there is no greater ill. It ruins states, overturns
homes, and joining with the spear-thrust breaks the ranks in rout. But
in the steady lines what saves most lives is discipline. Therefore we
must defend the public order.

But when his son Haemon protests against his tyranny, Creon states his
understanding of the bargain:

CREON
Govern this land for others than myself?

HAEMON
No city is the property of one alone.

CREON
Is not the city reckoned his who rules?

HAEMON
Excellent ruling--you alone, the land deserted![6]

{152} In other words, Creon does not understand that if he exacts
everything he will possess nothing. There will come a point when the
cost to the community exceeds the gain; and when that point is reached
government must either make more liberal terms or forfeit its power.

The principle of rationality in government is parsimony. When its
benefit involves a wasteful sacrifice of interests and may be purchased
more thriftily, the pressure of interest inevitably in the long run
brings about the change. The interests upon which the burden weighs
most heavily constitute the unstable factor, and since, in order that
equilibrium may be restored, these must be relieved, there is
necessarily a gradual liberalization of governmental institutions. In
the light of these general considerations I wish briefly to examine
three historica