Show liw cwi PI leiv educations 0 t v LE TUB EARLY HIS boky OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL the lecture by B W drags jr in pleasant grove last herbert spencer says that in the early history of social life there was a system of promiscuity and then polyandry or plurality of husbands and the woman became the center of the family the kinship and descent being traced in her this seemed to bo the system of the barbarians after they bad left the patriarchal stage the next step was a consolidation showing a form of marriage men were au brothers and the father head was uncertain but it introduced kinship in the males the younger brother succeeded not only to his brothers property but also to his wife if ho warf married and did not want to take her another member of the family would as there grow up along with this a system of polygamy and it is said they out numbered the rest especially in eastern nations early society was originally in groups or tribes of people called the gentile method gens was the coa lection tion or kin the gens were a body related by consanguinity or common ancestry the basis of archon society with the barbarians if the fathers name was john smith for instance the son would be called john the indians however named their children to what their tion after or eighteen years of age or some would be named after tho first object that attracted the childs attention after birth as rain in the face red cloud sitting bull et cand thereafter if tho child got sick they thought the great spirit was displeased and they would change the name they had officers civil and military the sachem being a civil officer and the chief illary il tary this was the custom with he aborigines and it was very little different from the early condition ot the greeks and homans the change to modem society first took in greece in southern we are in doubt as to the certainty of the barly history but it is thought the war is a landmark in this regard but it was not till about the eighth century B C that society began to come out in a modem form they began brick and stone houses athens wa the first and most import aas city society was divided into three classes the nobility or well bom the ge or farmers and the or handy craftsmen in tho early organization they had a king with democratic authority but after a while the king was abolished and the ruler waa archon who at fint ruled foi ten years and finally for life greece was growing with considerable rapid sty and there was a tendency of taking the power out of a and giving jt to many a change analogous to modem governments weakening the power of the president As to society as tho geas grew they mado divisions called genteel gen tees the athenians had thirty genteel gen tees called a brotherhood or fraternity A number of tribes made a nation the population of this country about which so much has been written and talked of during its most flourishing time was probably only about were free or entitled to citizenship there were about slaves and foreigners a remarkable fact be ms that the slaves were greater than in bome four to one all menial work mechanical the arts seafaring and even soldiery was performed by slaves the business of the athenians was not to work but to go into the street to hear some new thing and to develop themselves mentally the purchase of slaves was enormous and under this condition of things society drifted for abdus four hundred yearby the rich growing richer alio poor poorer tho nobility were nobility of blood and like the normans would have run out if tho king had not created amore the first laws were those of draco maid to have been written in blood to bevere were thy draco compiled than and sel them in operation and their crudeness mav bo overlooked on account of there being the first but soon order was brought out of chaos by solon B C he enjoyed the greatest confidence and was regarded as the graat laigh er in the world under his cities were organized society became more classified according to estates and wealth and deans were inaugurated which with our townships and was th beginning of modem township rules the popular assembly under the solon system was not a representative body of a definite lumberas num beras in modem england or the congress of tho united states the people all cutno together alio constitution providing in for them and all people were admitted tholo over thirty having a right to were inducted into citizenship about the ago ay iy oae by a sort of religious ceremony this assembly met nine times a year the nine archois taking turn in presiding but as the population ed they met sometimes every day slaves were cheap only costing about two or three i ollars and this fact gave the freemen an opportunity to look after the assembly which at its highest was thousand the minimum being eight thousand people generally from twelve thousand mst together in assembly gave the speakers great f 0 J were vivacious critical and intolerant into lerent ike the modem house of common ahey would cough or laugh the speaker down unless he was attractive and aad something to say it is not so aisy to get into the house of jo amoas or into congress and md alio members there do not care to near oratory therefore there is abot much development in that line anly on the stump speeches being put in print and read next day so that there never has been the chancer for oratory as there was in greece were therefore rhetoricians oric ians and sold speeches for others to deliver as demosthenes for in stance who voice against ache roaring of the sea and who became the greatest and most extraordinary orator the world has ever oratory came to bo an art and even the physicians would use it in order to persuade their patients patients to take medicine measures were submitted to this assembly by the senate which was composed of a body of men selected from each anbe A poor man not was able to get in this senate was constantly in session the wealthy could afford to act as members as they received no pay the constitution was very far from being democratic in our sense of the cordall wor dall had a voice but not an equal voice the one who had the most property having the most to say the senate was the executive of the law and formed a sort of cabinet the plan devised by solon was therefore democratic but with aristocratic tendency he provided courts of judicature the first being made up of ex ar chons called the court who were the best citizens having become distinguished for their valor and merit and who when they retired had a veto power in the same sense the supreme court has over congress beneath this was the court that tried cases of nisi and a lower court still called the Helea stia composed of judges who decided cases of fact but might more properly be called jurors sitting at once before whom the case was the solon system was great for year sor more and might be called tha parent greek constitution it gas rights to the masses of people and developed the state suffrage is now almost universal on the continent ot europe the people are having a hand in as also is england and in this country jh prance they at last have a lie and in all one reform comee upon another and the query is are they bot rushing on to the same destruction st as did the athenians personal development and inequality alj condition in society are growing worse every day and it will always be found where there is the most liberty there is the most inequality of condi acion place men on an island equally situated and the property would soon be in the hands of the few in the grecian constitution it gave man the opportunity to make aae most of himself and under this condition of affairs society drifted until the rich grew richer and che poor poorer the taxes being upon the poor in consequence a series oi revolts occurred and radical changes adopted the methods then were similar to the situation in the united states the last few years rings were formed who earned every measured they lot for election and ostracism a system of banishment by popular condemnation dem nation and redistributed the tabes they established ten tribes in a division each was subdivided into ten deans or townships but there was this striking peculiarity that differs from us now the deans were not contiguous for the purpose of intrigues tri gues and it was not an age of rail road sand telegraph there was life and stir in the athenian society the popular assembly became stronger and about B 0 aero was the greatest advances in society and government they tried to destroy the solon constitution and then came the memorable wars with greece and persia and a more fierce democratic character abose at first there were few books and herodotus road his before the assembly and demosthenes copied the history of his country four times the athenians verea people of leisure and great progress was made in literature the arts and in dramatic productions poets sculptor sand the men of cheso professions stood higher than any other class no modern community has endeared its great minds to it as was with aristotle art and sculpture have not been equalled equal led or reproduced m modern times the climate was pro ant coatne stood out in the open air whore all could sey them and it encouraged euch art finally however wars shook her very foundation the states torn to pieces and eventually blotted out of existence tap to this the peloponnesian Pelop war B othere had been no effort to consolidate the greechan Gree cian government ern ment but their failure was by no means the exception it has never taken place except from necessity look at our own country england united to help defeat the indians another effort was made by win and at the an was made to unite the colonies and it was not until necessity compelled them that they were finally united for another example take spain sho was kopac in isolation un tit the sixteenth century and was rot united until ferdinand and isabella castile and aragon together then tor tho first united under one government in trance not till louis alth completed in francis and 2nd were their provinces how was it in england during tho saxon period they wore not united antil william the made them amenable to his rulo is look at germany hot until the present it a strong central government ciul more striking is that of modem italy from the earliest times sh yaa divided into independent states aad it was not until 1856 and 0 when they rallied around emanuiel that italy j r s T sr wr ah ti t i f ar a ai v A ate there have been two motives for consolidating first for the conquest of all states and then subjection to the conquering power and second for the purpose of defense and throwing off theyo ke of tyranny and it may be said th ey were only successful when sustaining the principle of liberty in the history of the world there have only been four great confider 1 the achaean B 0 when these twelve cities united to resist macedon 2 the confederacy of the netherlands in the sixteenth century 3 the confederacy of switzerland from the thirteenth century until the present tune and 4 the united states we might add germany since 1870 but it is more than a confederacy with the athenian league they had no capital city it was a migratory body and one state after another withdrew until the roman attack in B 0 when corinth was taken and the end of grecian history and the end of grecian glory and ci daiy aaion occurred but men went to athens to be educated and she was a great power in education for a long time after her fau to be continued |