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Show office r who i filling one. Th official i courted ami flattered whether he remains nt home or journey jour-ney alnut the country. He hns invitations in-vitations to aU the fashionable jraih-erinp, jraih-erinp, and is an object' of peeii! at tent ions. II is habits of catinjr, drink-it:? drink-it:? and mokin. his hours for ri-dn; and retiring, the ntyle of his clothing the shape of his whiskers, the temoei of his motlicr-in-law, and the hi-.iuty of the sweetheart that jilted him before be-fore his eventful career was opened n1"!' all describe:!. It is no jrreat wonder won-der that the su -ecssful politician al length comes to consider hin-se.l suiiicthing more than a common mortal, mor-tal, and to think that he Inn a 'Mtvine right'' to hold oilier. Ncilhcris it rcmarkohlc that .he canics to talk about his place as though it was created for him, or he was called by a power on hijrh to fill it. f POLITICAL SUPKRhTITION. Some ancient crank, while umlf the influence of (rjTMW, V wwMYo pZ&lid ft rm importance to tnMatenu-$t of baiic pajgsjrinh replete with wisdum, and repeated them over andover, till at length they have poMfj into a proverb. Icrhc.t Spencer, Spen-cer, who contributes an article t the Popular Science Monthly on 'The Great Political Superstition," makes no msntion of them, but he eiuplo these words iu his introduction : "The great political superstition of the past was the divine right of kings. The great political superstition of the present is the divine right of parliaments. parlia-ments. The oil of anointing seems uuaware to have dropped from the head of the one on to the heads of the many, and given sacrcdnrss to them also and to their decrees." lie rw-gards rw-gards the earlier of these beliefs as irrational, but he thinks it is more consistent than the later one. The first kings were gods, the descendants of a god, or were god-appoiMcd. -In process of time, kings ruled hy the "grace of God." Their divine auhar-ity auhar-ity caused their subjt t not only to olcy them, but -to look upon them with veneration. When men came to elect thoir own rulers, they accorded to them the same attributes they acknowledged ac-knowledged as formerly inherent in kings. A parliament is regarded as omnipotent. The old ling was a representative rep-resentative of God. The parliament now stands in his place. It is taken for granted that it can do auything. and whatever it docs is-r-ght. A par-; par-; Jiament or other legislative body is 1 said to "create rights." The leading object of the paper ot Mr. Spencer is to show the absurdity of this view. 1 The majority in any legislative ns-J ns-J scmbly rules. It has little respset for the minority. If it numbers but one ' more than the minority, it acts in the same way it would if all the members ' were in harmony. The old notion ahoui me uivine right of kinp and the modern one concerning the divine riht of leg.shi-tive leg.shi-tive assemblies aru in harmony with the ideiLs of most persons concerning the men who occupy political osi-tions. osi-tions. A person in this country docs not need be elcctd to an important office it is sufficient to be nominated for one by a eoiiTouiiuii of his own packing in order to be an object of veneration. He can hear his name in places where it was never spoken before, and can "see his picture not ouly in newspapers, but iu shop windows. win-dows. He can almost realize the divinity that "doth hed-e a king." ' The place of his birth will be visited, written up and illustrated. Every detail in his life, during childhood, boyhood and manhood will be given ' to an admiring public. It maker . little difference in this eon r. try win the ancestors of a man in private iif were, or whether he had any, but al Tare anxiou.i to learn the podigrce uf ; ,j person who U a cuudidaic for ai 4 |