Book Description

Excerpt from The Evolution of Governments and Laws, Exhibiting the Governmental Structures, of Ancient and Modern States, Their, Growth and Decay and the Leading, Principles of Their Laws, Vol. 1 The wide research and long study preceding and attending the preparation of this work have been prosecuted for the purpose of extracting from the recorded experiences of the various people of the earth, in the governments they have had and the laws under which they have lived, such broad and general principles as may be helpful in the work of framing constitutions and formulating laws. Neither government-building nor law-making is a science. That the moral law has some force and application is generally admitted, but that it may be violated, when deemed expedient to do so, is constantly asserted in practice. What is the moral law, and where may its precepts be found? Perhaps most men will answer, in the sacred books. But it may again be asked, what books are sacred? To this the Brahman will unhesitatingly answer, the Vedas and the code of Manu; the Buddhist, the Greater or the Lesser Vehicle, according to his sect; the Mohammedan, the Koran; the Jew, the Talmud; the Parsee, the Zend-Avesta; the Christian, the Bible, and so on through less widely accepted codes. While much of agreement can be found in all of them, there are direct antagonisms of the utmost importance. Mohammed taught war and commanded the propagation of the word by the sword. Christ forbade it, yet is recorded as having said, "I came not to send peace but a sword." Manu taught caste and inequality among men; Buddha equality. All the Asiatic codes, including the Christian, countenance slavery, which the moral sense of Europe and America now condemns. All nations resort to war; yet its immorality is its most apparent characteristic. Every normal person feels a capacity for determining the moral quality of the acts of himself and of others, yet varying capacity, education and surroundings lead to diverse judgments on many subjects. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.