068
THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF
fore little ov no authority or subordination in this period ofsociety. The second period of society, that of shepkerds, ad-mits of very great inequalities of fortune, and there is no pe-riod in which the superiority of fortune gives so great autho-rity to those who possess it. There is no period accordinglyin which authority and subordination are more perfectly es-tablished. The authority of an Arabian scherif is very great;that of a Tartar khan altogether despotical.
The fourth of those causes or circumstances is the superio-rity of birth. Superiority of birth supposes an ancient su-periority of fortune in the family of the person who claims it.All families are equally ancient; and the ancestors of theprince, though they may be better known, cannot well bemore numerous than those of the beggar. . Antiquity of fa-mily means everywhere the antiquity either of wealth, or ofthat greatness which is commonly either founded upon wealth,or accompanied with it. Upstart greatness is everywhereless respected than ancient greatness. The hatred of usurp-ers, the love of the family of an ancient monarch, are, in agreat measure, founded upon the contempt which men na-turally have for the former, and upon their veneration for thelatter. As a military officer submits without reluctance to theauthority of a superior by whom he has always been com-manded, but cannot bear that his inferior should be set overhis head; so men easily submit to a family to whom theyand their ancestors have always submitted; but are tiredwith indignation when another family, in whom they hadnever acknowledged any such superiority, assumes a domi-nion over them.
The distinction of birth, being subsequent to the inequalityof fortune, can have no place in nations of hunters, amongwhom all men, being equal in fortune, must likewise be verynearly equal in birth. The son of a wise and brave man may,indeed, even among them, be somewhat more respected thana man of equal merit who has the misfortune to be the son ofa fool, or a coward. The difference, however, will not bevery great ; and there never was, I believe, a great family inthe world whose illustration was entirely derived from theinheritance of wisdom and virtue.
The distinction of birth not only may, but always does takeplace among nations of shepherds. Such nations are alwaysstrangers to every sort of luxury, and great wealth can scarceever be dissipated among them by improvident profusion.