582 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



at least not in a normal way, without incitement from outside to 

 loosen and direct his instinctive aptitude. There is explosive ma- 

 terial stored up in him, but it cannot go off unless the right spark 

 reaches it, and that spark is usually some sort of a personal sug- 

 gestion, some living trait that sets life free and turns restlessness 

 into power. 



It must be evident that we can look for no cut-and-dried theory 

 of this life-imparting force, no algebraic formula for leadership. 



The prime condition of ascendency is the presence of undi- 

 rected energy in the person over whom it is to be exercised : it is 

 not so much forced upon us from without as demanded from 

 within. The mind, having energy, must work, and requires a 

 guide, a form of thought, to facilitate its working. All views of 

 life are fallacious which do not recognize the fact that the pri- 

 mary need is the need to do. Every healthy organism evolves 

 energy, and this must have an outlet. 



If we ask what are the mental traits that distinguish a leader, 

 the only answer seems to be that he must, in one way or another, 

 be a great deal of a man, or at least appear to be. He must stand 

 for something to which men incline, and so take his place by right 

 as a focus of their thought. 



To be a great deal of a man, and hence a leader, involves, on 

 the one hand, a significant individuality, and, on the other, 

 breadth of sympathy, the two being different phases of personal 

 caliber, rather than separate traits. It is because a man cannot 

 stand for anything except as he has a significant individuality, 

 that self-reliance is so essential a trait in leadership. 



All leadership takes place through the communication of ideas 

 to the minds of others, and unless the ideas are so presented as 

 to be congenial to those other minds, they will evidently be re- 

 jected. 



In face-to-face relations, then, the natural leader is one who 

 always has the appearance of being master of the situation. He 

 includes other people and extends beyond them, and so is in a 

 position to point out what they must do next. Intellectually his 

 suggestion seems to embrace what is best in the views of others, 

 and to embody the inevitable conclusion ; it is the timely, the fit, 

 and so the prevalent. Emotionally his belief is the strongest 

 force present, and so draws other beliefs into it. Yet, while he 



