o, in that superior class which is eventually
transformed into the directo-executive system of a society (its
legislative and defensive appliances), does there exist in the
beginning, a larger endowment of the capacities required for these
higher social functions. Always, in rude assemblages of men, the
strongest, most courageous, and most sagacious, become rulers and
leaders; and, in a tribe of some standing, this results in the
establishment of a dominant class, characterized on the average by those
mental and bodily qualities which fit them for deliberation and
vigorous combined action. Thus that greater impressibility and
contractility, which in the rudest animal types characterize the units
of the ectoderm, characterize also the units of the primitive social
stratum which controls and fights; since impressibility and
contractility are the respective roots of intelligence and strength.

Again, in the unmodified ectoderm, as we see it in the _Hydra_, the
units are all endowed both with impressibility and contractility; but as
we ascend to higher types of organization, the ectoderm differentiates
into classes of units which divide those two functions between them:
some, becoming exclusively impressible, cease to be contractile; while
some, becoming exclusively contractile, cease to be impressible.
Similarly with societies. In an aboriginal tribe, the directive and
executive functions are diffused in a mingled form throughout the whole
governing class. Each minor chief commands those under him, and, if need
be, himself coerces them into obedience. The council of chiefs itself
carries out on the battle-field its own decisions. The head chief not
only makes laws, but administers justice with his own hands. In larger
and more settled communities, however, the directive and executive
agencies begin to grow distinct from each other. As fast as his duties
accumulate, the head chief or king confines himself more and more to
directing public affairs, and leaves the execution of his will to
others: he deputes others to enforce submission, to inflict punishments,
or to carry out minor acts of offence and defence; and only on occasions
when, perhaps, the safety of the society and his own supremacy are at
stake, does he begin to act as well as direct. As this differentiation
establishes itself, the characteristics of the ruler begin to change. No
longer, as in an aboriginal tribe, the strongest and most daring man,
the tendency is