Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/210

 value which these metals would acquire by their durability, by their usefulness in strengthening the feeble powers of man, and by the difficulty of discovering them; and in particular, the dreadful importance which they would acquire in the hands of those who first converted them into destructive weapons, is sufficiently apparent in itself. Indeed these metals are found to be, from the very commencement of History, the most universally coveted commodities; they are even to the present day the most highly prized things which the civilized man can bring to the savage; and the perfecting of arms, and the fabrication of newer and more efficient instruments of murder out of these metals, is an actual phase of development in our whole History!

By means of these two principles, there could now ensue the subjugation, under one or more leaders, of the inhabitants of those countries throughout which the Normal People were in the first instance dispersed, unmixed with the Barbarians at the outset although surrounded by them. Whether they were at first united for the purposes of active warfare only against the wild animals, or against the Savages not as yet subjected to the purposes of Culture; still this union could occur only on the supposition of the need of such a warfare. The Ruler would not be under the necessity of expending any peculiar care on the maintenance or preservation of his subjects, who being themselves descended from the cultivated race could provide for their own support had they only external peace: as little would he be called upon to make large demands upon their energies and labour, since their union had only a temporary and easily attainable purpose in view. Soon, however, this simple relation became more complex. The power of governing others, possessed by the Ruler,—of legislating for them, particularly of legislating for them through the agency of others, became an object of ambition, and in proportion as the capacities of those who