146 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 



race. They like to think that a people chooses its paths and 

 policies, and consciously and purposefully advances toward 

 some selected end. They make much of what might be called 

 a rational selection by a people between codes and policies pre- 

 sented to them for adjudication. The country is figured as 

 thinking things out for the country's welfare, as sifting evi- 

 dence and being intellectually persuaded as to this and that. 

 It seems to be assumed that "the people" can think in terms 

 of a nation and will form a public opinion that operates as 

 intelligent self-direction. 



Most of this sort of contention is myth-making, like the 

 philosopher's picture of the "noble savage" he never having 

 seen one. Perhaps some rare statesman may rise to the power 

 of thinking in terms of high generality; but it is at his peril, 

 at least during his lifetime, that he tries to realize those 

 thoughts. Lofty talk is appreciated, but action on the basis 

 of wide generalization is repellent, as "unpractical" or "ideal- 

 istic." Long after his death, such a statesman may get a 

 statue; but that will be in consequence of the verdict of history, 

 arrived at when the heat and passion have died down. 



What moves men the masses of men, whose numbers, 

 social bulk, and formidable inertia are commonly left out of 

 adequate account by theorists is not thought, but emotion. 

 And what sets emotion going is interest. And the circle of 

 interest is, for most men, very narrow and very closely drawn 

 around one's self. What sets the revolutions in motion, with 

 the result of drastic selection in the codes, is not the cerebration 

 of anyone over great issues, but the unendurable discomfort 

 and awakened emotions of the masses. Their interests have 

 been so outraged that anything seems likely to be better than 

 the present. Hence a passion to overturn things and take a 

 new start. It is the opportunity of the agitator, for misery is 

 indefinitely credulous hopelessly thoughtless never intellec- 

 tual and analytical. The "quadrennial revolution" or "bi- 



