How it was organized, through
what early stages of violence it passed, through what accidents and
struggles, and into whose hands it is now entrusted, whether
temporarily or forever, whatever the laws of its transmission, whether
by inheritance or election, is of secondary importance; the main thing
is its functions and their mode of operation. It is essentially a
mighty sword, drawn from its scabbard and uplifted over the smaller
blades around it, with which private individuals once cut each others'
throats. Menaced by it, the smaller blades repose in their scabbards;
they have become inert, useless, and, finally rusty; with few
exceptions, everybody save malefactors, has now lost both the habit
and the desire to use them, so that, henceforth, in this pacified
society, the public sword is so formidable that all private resistance
vanishes the moment it flashes. - This sword is forged out of two
interests: it was necessary to have one of its magnitude, first,
against similar blades brandished by other communities on the
frontier, and next, against the smaller blades which bad passions are
always sharpening in the interior. People demanded protection against
outside enemies and inside ruffians and murderers, and, slowly and
painfully, after much groping and much re-tempering, the agreement
between hereditary forces has fashioned the sole arm which is capable
of protecting lives and property with any degree of success.
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