CHATTEL XLJL 



NONCONFORMITY. 



642. NOTHING like that which we now call Nonconformity 

 can be traced in societies of simple types. Devoid of the 

 knowledge and the mental tendencies which lead to criticism 

 and scepticism, the savage passively accepts whatever -his 

 seniors assert. Custom in the form of established belief, 

 as well as in the form of established usage, is sacred with 

 him : dissent from it is unheard of. And throughout long 

 early stages of social evolution there continues, among 

 results of this trait, the adhesion to inherited religions. It 

 is true that during these stages numerous cults co-exist side 

 by side; but, products as these are of the prevailing ancestor- 

 worship, the resulting polytheism does not show us what we 

 now understand as Nonconformity ; since the devotees at the 

 various shrines neither deny one another s gods, nor call in 

 question in pronounced ways the current ideas concerning 

 them. Only in cases like that of Socrates, who enunciated a 

 conception of supernatural agents diverging widely from the 

 popular conception of them, do we see in early societies 

 Nonconformity properly so-called. 



What we have here to deal with under this name occurs 

 chiefly in societies which are substantially, if not literally, 

 monotheistic; and in which there exists nominally, if not 

 really, a tolerably uniform creed administered by a consoli 

 dated hierarchy. 



Even as thus restricted, Nonconformity comprehend** 

 phenomena widely unlike in their natures; and that we 



