THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

68 THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY
unappreciated security which comes of social organization, the freedom
that comes of law. "Man, when is the best of
perfected, animals; but
when isolated he is the worst of all; for is injustice more dangerous when
armed, and man is equipped at birth with the weapon of intelligence,
and with qualities of character which he may use for the vilest ends.
Wherefore if he have not virtue he is the most unholy and savage of
animals, full of gluttony and lust." And only social control can give him
virtue. Through speech man evolved society; through society, intelligence;
through intelligence, order; and through order, civilization. In such an
ordered state the individual has a thousand opportunities and avenues of
development open to him which a solitary life would never give. "To
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live alone," then, "one must be either an animal or a god."
Hence revolution is almost always unwise; it may achieve some good,
but at the cost of many evils, the chief of which is the disturbance, and
perhaps the dissolution, of that social order and structure on which every
political good depends. The direct consequences of revolutionary innova
tions may be calculable and salutary; but the indirect are generally in-
calculable, and not seldom disastrous. "They who take only a few points
into account find it easy to pronounce judgment" ; and a man can make
up his mind quickly if he has only a little to make up. "Young men are
easily deceived, for they are quick to hope." The suppression of longestablished
habits brings the overthrow of innovating governments be-
cause the old habits persist among the people; characters are not so
easily changed as laws. If a constitution is to be permanent, all the parts
of a society must desire it to be maintained. Therefore a ruler who would
avoid revolution should prevent extremes of poverty and wealth, "a
condition which is most often the result of war"; he should (like the
English) encourage colonization as an outlet for a dangerously congested
population; and he should foster and practice religion. An autocratic
ruler particularly "should appear to be earnest in the worship of the
gods; for if men think that a ruler is religious and reveres the gods, they
are less afraid of suffering injustice at his hands, and are less disposed
to conspire against him, since they believe that the gods themselves are
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fighting on his side."
3. DEMOCRACY AND ARISTOCRACY
With such safeguards in religion, in education, and in the ordering of
family life, almost any of the traditional forms of government will serve.
All forms have good and bad commingled in them, and are severally
adapted to various conditions. Tl^earelfcaUy^
merit would be the centralization of all political power in
^Politics, i ? 2. "Or," adds Nietzsche, who takes nearly all of his political philosophy
from Aristotle, "one must be both that is, a philosopher,"
*Politics* iv, 5; ii, 9; v, 7; ii, n.
^
the