OBEDIENCE 179 



individual will ; in its most perfect form, all earthly interests, 

 the solicitations of power, fame, wealth, and pleasure, the 

 family affections, and even the dictates of the moral con 

 sciousness, are disregarded; and, though this is not always 

 necessary, the end of action is placed in a life beyond 

 the grave. This temper is rarely to be found except 

 as the product of a difficult special training, or of self- 

 imposed asceticism. When attained in any consider 

 able degree it adds an evident force and dignity to the 

 character, and purifies and elevates the standard of living. 

 The unworldliness of the early Christians implied the 

 sacrifice of all secular motives, and produced a freedom 

 and grandeur of character hitherto unknown. It is the 

 best antidote to that pusillanimity which, as Hobbes 

 remarks, by magnifying irrelevant trifles causes men to 

 lose ground before little hindrances. It reaches the highest 

 pitch of effectiveness when allied with obedience to the 

 commands of some recognized external authority. Its 

 force is then indefinitely multiplied by the combination 

 of the detached will of one individual with those of others 

 in the pursuit of the same prescribed aim. The alliance 

 of detachment with obedience is what explains the influence, 

 altogether disproportionate to their number, exercised in 

 history by small communities like the adherents of the 

 Old Man of the Mountain, and other well-known religious 

 orders. The effective value of the individual is never so 

 high as when his will, strengthened and purified by self- 

 abnegation, is completely subordinated to the will of another. 

 What at first appears to be complete extinction of in 

 dividuality adds incalculably to the force exercised by each 

 individual unit, though it may have no ascertainable effect 

 on his life when stated merely in values of pain and pleasure. 

 Enough has perhaps been said for our present purpose 

 about the relations of obedience in general to other elements 

 of the human character. Another most important point 

 remains to be dealt with that is, the subdivision of obedi 

 ence into distinct channels or branches. In its later and 

 more highly developed forms it is no longer a general 



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