xix THE TROPICS AND THE CALL 191 



dance,' to be danced without breaking a single egg. 

 Another point on which I should like to insist is 

 that, among natives, the white man is respected and 

 obeyed, and even granting this to be a surface 

 allegiance, it imparts a sense of superiority, which, 

 however conscious a philosophic man may be of its 

 ultimate futility, indubitably enlarges his own 

 innate sense of self-respect. I do not think anyone 

 who looks this fact coldly in the face can deny its 

 power among all races and men, for it is certainly 

 at the root of all sane human social systems, how- 

 ever much people may try to think otherwise. 

 This salutary sense of superiority is, moreover, 

 certainly assisted by the fact that in the wild a man 

 has only his own sense of right and wrong to guide 

 him, a circumstance which makes him morally his 

 own master and ruler, and gives him complete 

 confidence in his own judgment. On the other 

 hand, when he returns home, he feels physically 

 lost in the swarm of human beings that throng a 

 great city, and experiences the disconcerting idea 

 that he has, somehow or other, lost his personality 

 and dwindled to insignificance in the vast sea of the 

 commonplace. Also, in a white man's dealing with 

 natives, his word is essentially his bond, and there 

 is no going back on that word if you are to breed 

 confidence and trust among your men. You may 

 break that word if you wish, for there is no written 



