Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/117

 The law, its enforcement and interpretation, became equally engines of oppression and extortion. As if this were not enough, weak-minded enthusiasts joined with the toadies, and representatives of the criminal classes, in weakening the already insufficient safeguards of life and property. The law and its officers became simply an organization for favoring the escape of criminals from deserved punishment. In some countries, the industrious classes actually disappeared at last, ground to powder between the upper and lower millstones of oppressive government and unchecked crime. Learning, honesty, industry, died out, or took refuge in other lands. Society relapsed to a form of barbarism more frightful even than that of primitive ages, man being now armed for evil with a terrible control over the forces of nature.

"From this seething and fermenting mass were gradually evolved new political organizations. From the extremes of democracy and lawlessness, government, in these lands, naturally reverted to various systems of despotism and repression. Not only was this the sole refuge from anarchy, but it was the only means of preventing a reversion to mere savagery. Despots, however, and their satellites, do not work for nothing: some one must work to supply them with what they regard as an adequate reward for their arduous labors. Rigorous laws were put in operation to repress idleness among the thinned population left by terrible civil conflicts. Industry and prosperity revived, and even as much education as can flourish under a jealous despotism. Most acquiesced readily in the change. Better, they thought, the possibility of being crushed at a blow by an irresistible power, than to perish