A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c7.42

c7.42

A new organism has swallowed up the old. But the new organism is not a mere enlargement of the old ; it is based on entirely different principles. The Clan has a natural leader ; the league of clans has none. . . . . . And so the league of clans produces the war-chief, who may, perhaps, borrow the old Clan title of king, but whose proper designation among Teutonic peoples is ‘heretoch,’ or host-leader. This is the true character of the leaders of the Teutonic invasions. . . . . But a military leader will naturally organise his army on other than Clan principles. . . . . These privileged persons are simply royal officials, chosen for their military or administrative qualities. Many of them are of servile birth ; it is impossible that they should claim ancestral honours. The nobility of blood has been replaced by the nobility of the sword and the office. . . . . The principle of selection for personal merit has wider results than the overthrow of a Clan nobility. It is responsible for what is, perhaps, the most vital difference between the Clan and the State. . . . . The Germans of whom Tacitus writes conducted their warfare by *familiæ et propinquitates*. But the king in the time of the *Leges Barbarorum* dealt directly with the individual.”[^asterisk] “The earliest notion of justice,” the author continues, “as distinct from mere indiscriminate revenge, that we find among the Teutonic peoples, is undoubtedly, the blood-feud. . . . . But when we first turn the search-light of history on the Teuton, he is found to be passing through and beyond the blood-feud. . . . . To the blood-feud