I give as illustrations, a few extracts from "The Social Destiny of Man," by Albert Brisbane, page 269:--"Four societies have existed on the earth--the savage, patriarchal, barbarian and civilized. Under these general heads may be classed the various social forms through which man has progressed up to the present day. _If four have existed may not a fifth, or even a sixth, be discovered and organized?_ Common sense would dictate that there could, although the world has entertained a different opinion."
Page 293: "If the barbarian asserts that the lash is the only means of forcing the slave to labor, the civilized is not far behind him in his reasoning, for he will assert with equal confidence that necessity and want are necessary stimulants to industry. The barbarian is as ignorant of the levers which civilization puts in play as is the civilized of the powerful incentives to action which the groups and series will call forth."
Page 464: "If He [God] has not known how or has not wished to give us a social code productive of justice, industrial attraction and passional harmony;--_if he has not known how_, how could he have supposed our weak reason would succeed in a task in which he himself doubted of success? _If he has not wished_, how can our legislators hope to organize a society which would lead to the results above mentioned, and of which he wished to deprive us.... What motive could he have had to refuse us such a code? Six views may be taken on the subject of this omission.
"_First--either he has not known how_ to give us a social code guaranteeing truth, justice and industrial attraction; in this case why create in us the want of it, without having the means of satisfying that want which he satisfies in creatures inferior to us, to which he assigns a mode of existence adapted to their attractions and instincts:
"Second--_or he has not wished_ to give us this code; which thus supposes the Creator to be the persecutor of mankind, creating in us wants which it is impossible to satisfy, inasmuch as none of our codes can extirpate our permanent scourges:
"Third--_or he has known how and has not wished_; in which case the Creator becomes a malignant being, knowing how to do good, but preferring the reign of evil: