29.From what has been said,however,we may judge what truth there is in our Author's observation,that `when society'(understand natural society)`is once formed,government'(that is political society)(whatever quantity or degree of Obedience is necessary to constitute political society)`results ofcourse;as necessary to preserve and to keep that society in order.'By the words,`of course,'is meant,I suppose,constantly and immediately:at least constantly.According to this,political society,in any sense of it,ought long ago to have been established all the world over.Whether this be the case,let any one judge from the instances of the Hottentots,of the Patagonians,and of so many other barbarous tribes,of which we hear from travellers and navigators.
30.It may be,after all,we have misunderstood his meaning.We have been supposing him to have been meaning to assert a matter of fact,and to have written,or at least begun,this sentence in the character of an historical observer;whereas,all he meant by it,perhaps,was to speak in the character of a Censor,and on a case supposed,to express a sentiment of approbation.In short,what he meant,perhaps,to persuade us of,was not that `government'does actually `result'from natural `society';but that it were better that it should,to wit,as being necessary to `preserve and keep'men `in that state of order',in which it is of advantage to them that they should be.Which of the above mentioned characters he meant to speak in,is a problem I must leave to be determined.The distinction,perhaps,is what never so much as occurred to him;and indeed the shifting insensibly,and without warning,from one of those characters to the other,is a failing that seems inveterate in our Author;and of which we shall probably have more instances than one to notice.