ACTIVE SOCIAL ADAPTATION 273 
Now this winning quality of evoking sympathy (se rendre 
sympathique) is incompatible with the use of physical force. 
No one can compel love by force. The only way one can evoke sympathy 
is by possessing the qualities which are admired. If one society experiences 
admiration for the intellectual culture of another, this admiration provokes 
sympathy and leads it to imitate the models which are pleasing. To provoke 
imitation is the most efficient process in the domain of sentiment. 
Although Novicow’s use of the terms sympathie and sympathett- 
que are not the best in this connection, his emphasis on the 
importance of “ provoking imitation ” as a factor in social prog- 
ress is of the greatest significance in our discussion. The con- 
clusion to his analysis of feeling is as follows: — 
The power which one society possesses of assimilating a lower society and 
its power of radiating influence is in direct proportion to the sympathy it can 
evoke. Now the ability to absorb strange elements and to make conquests 
outside are the very conditions of the growth of societies. We conclude, 
then, that . . . other things being equal, the nation which evokes the most 
sympathy will be the most powerful.? 
In discussing ‘‘ denationalization ” Novicow points out the 
value of homogeneity to a political groupand shows how ineffectual 
are the coercive methods used almost exclusively up to the present 
time by rulers in their endeavor to assimilate subject peoples 
differing in language and culture. He condemns the current 
political theory and practice which make the territory belonging 
to a nation under the absolute control of the rulers to be disposed 
of as they wish without regard to the desire of the private owners 
and occupiers of the land, and holds that migration, alliance, 
union and realignment of groups should be absolutely free and 
based entirely on the laws of social attraction or ‘‘ sympathy.” 
For example he believes that the northern states were not 
justified in ’61 in preventing the secession of the southern states; 
that Alsace and Lorraine should themselves decide as to whether 
they would be a part of Germany or France.! 
The reason assigned for the failure of coercion to secure group 
homogeneity is the fact noted above that assimilation is a matter 
of feeling. The “ sympathy ” of the subject people must be won 
1 Les Luttes, pp. 122, 276 ff. 3 [bid., p. 127. 
2 Ibid., p. 124. 4 Ibid., pp. 251, 252. 
