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 
