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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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unknown in so rude and numerous a horde , be whom all feared and honoured , would be the most natural judge of the dispute , and reverence and awe of his prowess would suffice to give force to his sentences . Thus the first leader of the chase became an arbiter and judge .
The prey being" shared , it was but equitable that the larger portion should accrue to the leader ; and as he could not consume it himself , he would have the means of attaching others , and therefore of gaining partizans and friends . Soon a number of the
bravest , which he would ever seek to augment by new benefits , assembled round his person , and imperceptibly he had formed a sort of body guard , a band of Mamelukes , who supported his pretensions with wild zeal , and deterred by their numbers all attempts at opposition .
As these huntsmen were useful to all land-owners and herdsmen , whose enclosures they guarded from devastating foes , a free-will offering might at first have been granted them for their beneficial labours , of the fruits of the earth and of flocks , which iu
the sequel might have been claimed as a deserved tribute , and finally exacted as a due and a 3 an obligatory tax . These acquisitions the chief divided among the most efficient of his band ; and by them continually increased the number of his creatures .
As the pursuit frequently led him throu gh meadows and fields , that suffered damage by the procession , many proprietors found it expedient to buy off the injury by a spontaneous gift , which he afterwards demanded of all those whom he might have molested . By these and similar means
he increased his wealth , and by thishis followers , who at length grew to a little army , the more tremendous as they had been inured to every danger and difficulty in contest with the liou and tiger , and rendered savage by their rude trade . Terror preceded their names , and none dared venture on the refusal of their demands . If
quarrels arose between one of the band and a stranger , the hunter naturally appealed to his leader and protecto r , who thus learnt to extend "J Judicial authority over matters distinct from the chase . Now he
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wanted nothing of the king but the solemn recognition \ and could this be well refused him at the head of his armed and imperious train ? He was the fittest to rule , because the mpst powerful to enforce his commands . He was the universal benefactor of
all , because they were indebted to him for peace and security against the common foe . He was already in possession of power , because the strongest were at his command .
In a similar manner did the ancestors of Alaric , of Attila , and of the Merovingi , become kings of their people . Thus was it with the Greek kings , whom . Homer exhibits in the Iliad
AH were at first leaders of a warlike multitude , vanquishers of monsters , benefactors of their nation . From military leaders , they gradually became umpires and judges . With the booty they acquired they purchased a faction , which made them powerful and awful . By violence they finally ascended the throne .
By some the example of the Medes is adduced , who spontaneously bestowed the royal dignity on him whom they had made useful as judge . But it is a mistake to apply this example in tracing the elevation of the first king . When the Medes made their
king , they were already a people ^ already a formed political society ; in the case under discussion , on the other hand , the first political society originated with the king . The Medes had borne the oppressive yoke of the Assyrian monarchs ; the king of whom we now speak was the first in the
world j and the people who subjected themselves to him a company of freeborn men , who as yet had seea no authority over them . An already endured government may very easily be renewed in this peaceful way ; but in so tranquil a mode , one new and unknown could never be instituted .
It appears , therefore , more conformable to the march of events , that the first king should be an usurper , placed on the throne , not by the spontaneous , unanimous call of the nation , ( for nation as yet there was none , ) but by violence , by good fortune , and by a ( taring soldiery . COMAR YATES .
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guided by the Clue , of the Mosaic Mission . 413
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 413, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/29/
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