l types of government, and then to present a summary of
present tendencies.

There is an interesting estimate of the benefits and cost of the
_ancient military monarchy_ in the history of Israel, as recorded by
the writer of the Book of Samuel. The elders have demanded that Samuel
make them a king, to judge them, "like all the nations." But he first
warns them of the price that they will have to pay:

And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over
you: he will take your sons, and {153} appoint them unto him, for his
chariots, and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his
chariots; and he will appoint them unto him for captains of thousands,
and captains of fifties; and he will set some to plow his ground, and
to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the
instruments of his chariots. . . . And he will take your fields, and
your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give
them to his servants. . . . And he will take your men servants, and
your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and
put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks: and ye
shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of
your king that ye shall have chosen you.

But the men of Israel were willing to pay even this price, saying:

Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the
nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and
fight our battles.[7]

The benefits of monarchy, in which Israel sought to emulate her
neighbors, were _judgment_ and _military prowess_. Even where the
evils of tyranny were most aggravated these benefits actually accrued
and constituted a rational ground of authority. The king was, at least
in a measure, worthy of his hire. But the cost was extravagant; the
king exacted a disproportionate share of the plunder, and reduced his
subjects to a condition of personal bondage. In the great monarchies,
such as Assyria, Egypt, Persia, and the Roman {154} Empire in its later
period, the benefits of his role were greatly attenuated before they
reached to the depths and extremities of his kingdom, judgment being
reduced to the caprice of an irresponsible officer, and military
prowess to a faint reflection of national glory. Now the weakness of
such a polity lay in its doubtful value to the governed, these failing
to participate fairly in its achievements, and so