represents the tribe, though moving in a fused mass of men, as containing within itself a principle of coalescence which began to work as soon as the movement was over."[1] We cannot, of course, be sure that such an image as this would exactly represent the way in which Greeks and Latins, or Celts and Teutons, settled down on the land which they conquered; for the history of man, as of plants and animals, presents local variation everywhere. But I know of no better way of getting a general idea of what we suppose to have happened at this momentous era in the progress of a people, than by laying to heart this singularly happy illustration.
What, then, were the characteristics of the Village Community, using the word in the general sense given above? We may recognise four, each of which is of importance in its bearing on the development of institutions in later stages of civilisation. They are gathered from examples of these groups which have been studied in the life in India, Russia, and Slavonia; and also from survivals, in which some one at least of the original features can be traced, in England, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, and other countries.
First, as is implied in what has been said above, the families of which the community consisted were originally all akin to one another. Kinship was the foundation-stone of the society. That this was so in England can still be proved, as is well known, from the names of many of our villages,
- ↑ Maine, op. cit. p. 71.
