powell] SOCIOLOGY, OR THE SCIENCE OF INSTITUTIONS 497
seek their own interests by promoting the interests of others. This is the law of political economy by which wealth is produced. Self-interest may blind men's eyes to their true relations to others in relation to property. The brutal self-seeking which is inherited must by some agency be thwarted, else others suffer and hence self suffers. Then, the passions of men blind their eyes, and their passions must be controlled.
By common agreement rules or laws for the government of conduct are established, and these established rules are enforced ultimately by punitive sanctions. As punitive sanctions become more and more certain, the resort to such sanctions becomes less and less necessary if some method is devised by which the con- tending parties may have their cases adjudged. This leads to the organization of government. Government is a scheme for providing an organization of the body politic which will lead to the settlement of disputes, with power to enforce judgment by punitive measures.
Civics is the science of government. Government is organized to promote and establish justice. There are five elements of justice, no one of which can be neglected if any other is secured and at the same time justice maintained. These elements are peace, equity, equality, liberty, and charity.
Peace. — The fundamental principle of justice is peace, and primeval governments are organized to secure peace. There can be no pleasure without peace, and infractions of peace produce the most intense pain.
Equity. — On further consideration primeval man learns that he cannot secure peace without exterminating the causes of infrac- tions of peace. Every example of a disturbance of the peace is found to be the effect of some cause, and tribal man speedily reaches the conclusion that the causes which disturb the peace are the inequities which spring up in society. Perhaps men quarrel over the distribution of the spoils of the chase, perhaps they quarrel over their wives, but every infraction of the peace is seen
AM. ANTH. N. S., I — 32
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