THE CAUSES OF PERSECUTION 



which have not yet begun to exist, or are at any 

 rate remote from us at the present moment. 

 Other things equal, the man who has this power 

 of " representativeness " most fully developed 

 is most likely to exhibit self-control amid the 

 myriad temptations of life. Yet in spite of the 

 highly composite character of the process by 

 which the habit of self-control is reached, the 

 result is a purely ethical result a result which 

 we estimate solely with reference to its bearing 

 upon the welfare of society. And accordingly, 

 when we praise a man for prudence and self- 

 control, we rightly feel that we are paying trib- 

 ute rather to his moral character than to his 

 intellectual capacity. 



Such being the inextricable complication of 

 intellectual and moral processes, even in such a 

 comparatively simple case as that of " the ef- 

 fective desire of accumulation," we need not ex- 

 pect to be able to deal satisfactorily with such 

 a complex affair as the persecuting spirit without 

 taking into the account both intellectual and 

 moral factors. And in taking both into the ac- 

 count, it must be borne in mind that what we 

 have to say about the one is necessarily incom- 

 plete until mentally supplemented by what we 

 have to say about the other. 



The diminution in the intensity of the perse- 

 cuting spirit and the diminution in the atrocity 

 of its manifestations, alike furnish, when duly 



2OI 



