Variable Organization 211 



that right which we perceived as making the beginning of 

 responsibihty when voHtion first appeared. In this right it 

 is competent for the collective wisdom to declare precepts 

 against murder and theft and perjury, and, either by a 

 strong leader, or by a common activity, it may make its 

 opposition to these and other crimes more or less effective, 

 and so in part purge the community of them; but it cannot 

 by any such means compel active virtues. It cannot make 

 the man love truth who is deterred from lying only by fear 

 of penalty; nor can it induce one to give aid to the helpless 

 by the same means adopted to prevent him from robbing 

 the weak. These altruistic things are the product of long 

 continued voluntary thought which breeds conviction, and 

 the most that the advanced can do is to educate, and lead 

 up, those degraded or delayed, step by step, beginning at the 

 bottom, where the teacher must descend to the position of 

 the pupil. This process is in fact visible in all the successful 

 efforts at control by superior intellect, and there appears in 

 it a power and effect immensely greater than in those other 

 means wherein force demands compliance with laws not 

 understood, and even insists upon impossible mental percep- 

 tions ; under penalties and punishments. 



In the organization of the great social units which show 

 the most unity, the underlying principle, the influence which 

 comes nearest to a world-wide scope, is that of the teacher 

 making this altruistic descent to the lower level of his 

 pupils. A consideration of this attitude finds it to be based 

 upon a recognition of the right of the governed to certain 

 privileges of his own position, however low. Not a theoreti- 

 cal concession of right is here meant, but an actual state of 



