there no longer
exists much local independence. Now may we not in the growth of a
consolidated kingdom out of petty sovereignties or baronies, observe
analogous changes? Like the chiefs and primitive rulers above described,
feudal lords, exercising supreme power over their respective groups of
retainers, discharge functions analogous to those of rudimentary nervous
centres. Among these local governing centres there is, in early feudal
times, very little subordination. They are in frequent antagonism; they
are individually restrained chiefly by the influence of parties in their
own class; and they are but irregularly subject to that most powerful
member of their order who has gained the position of head-suzerain or
king. As the growth and organization of the society progresses, these
local directive centres fall more and more under the control of a chief
directive centre. Closer commercial union between the several segments
is accompanied by closer governmental union; and these minor rulers end
in being little more than agents who administer, in their several
localities, the laws made by the supreme ruler: just as the local
ganglia above described, eventually become agents which enforce, in
their respective segments, the orders of the cephalic ganglion. The
parallelism holds still further. We remarked above, when speaking of the
rise of aboriginal kings, that in proportion as their territories
increase, they are obliged not only to perform their executive functions
by deputy, but also to gather round themselves advisers to aid in their
directive functions; and that thus, in place of a solitary governing
unit, there grows up a group of governing units, comparable to a
ganglion consisting of many cells. Let us here add that the advisers and
chief officers who thus form the rudiment of a ministry, tend from the
beginning to exercise some control over the ruler. By the information
they give and the opinions they express, they sway his judgment and
affect his commands. To this extent he is made a channel through which
are communicated the directions originating with them; and in course of
time, when the advice of ministers becomes the acknowledged source of
his actions, the king assumes the character of an automatic centre,
reflecting the impressions made on him from without.

Beyond this complication of governmental structure many societies do not
progress; but in some, a further development takes place. Our own case
best il