ACTIVE SOCIAL ADAPTATION 285 
Samson the poor but capable monk is selected for the high office 
because of the instinctive wisdom of the thirteen. ‘‘ Great souls, 
true governors,” says our author, ‘“‘ go about under all manner of 
disguises now as then. . . . Those superstitious blockheads of 
the Twelfth Century had no telescopes, but they still had an eye; 
not ballot-boxes, only reverence for Worth, abhorrence of Un- 
worth.” He contrasts with this the methods of England’s choice 
that placed George the Third as ‘‘ head charioteer of the destinies 
of England ” and allowed Burns, the genius and poet “ to gauge 
ale-barrels in the Burg of Dumfries.” 4 
Abbot Samson begins at once the task of bringing order out of 
chaos,? and he is able to do this supremely valuable social task 
because of what he is, because of his power over other men, and 
because of his unquestioned authority. The character-sketch of 
this ‘hero ” is worth reproducing: — 
In most antiquarian quaint costume, not of garments alone, but of 
thought, word, action, outlook and position, the substantial figure of a man 
with eminent nose, bushy brows and clear-flashing eyes, his russet beard 
growing daily grayer, is visible, engaged in true governing of men. It is 
beautiful how the chrysalis governing-soul, shaking off its dusty slough and 
prison, starts forth winged, a true royal soul! Our new Abbot has a right 
honest unconscious feeling, without insolence as without fear or flutter, of 
what he is and what others are. A courage to quell the proudest, an honest 
pity to encourage the humblest. Withal there is a noble reticence in this 
Lord Abbot: much vain unreason he hears; lays up without response. He 
is not there to expect reason and nobleness of others; he is there to give 
them of his own reason and nobleness. Is he not their servant, as we said, 
who can suffer from them, and for them; bear the burden their poor spindle- 
limbs totter and stagger under; and, in virtue of being their servant, govern 
them, lead them out of weakness into strength, out of defeat into victory!? 
The Abbot begins his task with the reconstruction of the ma- 
terial aspects of his great problem, — with a “ radical reform of 
with the addition of three others, — those on the nominating committee each nomi- 
nating a fellow-member. The King orders three other names added from outside 
the convent, and then from the nine, orders three names to be struck off, then one 
declines, two more are ordered struck off, then still another, leaving but two names, 
those of Samson and the Prior, and of these, the choice is Samson. — Past and 
Present, ch. VIII. 
1 Past and Present, p. 86. 
2 “ Man is the Missionary of Order; he is the servant not of the Devil and 
Chaos, but of God and the Universe.” — Ibid., p. g1. 
3 Ibid., pp. 89-90. 
