ACTIVE SOCIAL ADAPTATION 285 



Samson the poor but capable monk is selected for the high office 

 because of the instinctive wisdom of the thirteen. " Great souls, 

 true governors," says our author, " go about under all manner of 

 disguises now as then. . . . Those superstitious blockheads of 

 the Twelfth Century had no telescopes, but they still had an eye; 

 not ballot-boxes, only reverence for Worth, abhorrence of Un- 

 worth." He contrasts with this the methods of England's choice 

 that placed George the Third as " head charioteer of the destinies 

 of England " and allowed Burns, the genius and poet " to gauge 

 ale-barrels in the Burg of Dumfries." x 



Abbot Samson begins at once the task of bringing order out of 

 chaos, 2 and he is able to do this supremely valuable social task 

 because of what he is, because of his power over other men, and 

 because of his unquestioned authority. The character-sketch of 

 this " hero " is worth reproducing: 



In most antiquarian quaint costume, not of garments alone, but of 

 thought, word, action, outlook and position, the substantial figure of a man 

 with eminent nose, bushy brows and clear-flashing eyes, his russet beard 

 growing daily grayer, is visible, engaged in true governing of men. It is 

 beautiful how the chrysalis governing-soul, shaking off its dusty slough and 

 prison, starts forth winged, a true royal soul! Our new Abbot has a right 

 honest unconscious feeling, without insolence as without fear or flutter, of 

 what he is and what others are. A courage to quell the proudest, an honest 

 pity to encourage the humblest. Withal there is a noble reticence in this 

 Lord Abbot: much vain unreason he hears; lays up without response. He 

 is not there to expect reason and nobleness of others; he is there to give 

 them of his own reason and nobleness. Is he not their servant, as we said, 

 who can suffer from them, and for them; bear the burden their poor spindle- 

 limbs totter and stagger under; and, in virtue of being their servant, govern 

 them, lead them out of weakness into strength, out of defeat into victory! 3 



The Abbot begins his task with the reconstruction of the ma- 

 terial aspects of his great problem, with a " radical reform of 



with the addition of three others, those on the nominating committee each nomi- 

 nating a fellow-member. The King orders three other names added from outside 

 the convent, and then from the nine, orders three names to be struck off, then one 

 declines, two more are ordered struck off, then still another, leaving but two names, 

 those of Samson and the Prior, and of these, the choice is Samson. Past and 

 Present, ch. VIII. 



1 Past and Present, p. 86. 



2 " Man is the Missionary of Order; he is the servant not of the Devil and 

 Chaos, but of God and the Universe." Ibid., p. 91. 



3 Ibid., pp. 89-90. 



