Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/772

756 according to precise rules and use of prescribed formulas which help to purge punishment of its personal element. It is the absence of this protective regularity and ceremonial which distinguishes a lynching party from a court and makes it so demoralizing to those who participate. It is formality that makes a difference between civilized execution and mere collective killing.

Ceremony has, however, a far deeper use than the protection of the penal officials. Much of the efficiency of punishment for culprit or spectators lies in attendant circumstances that stir the imagination and excite awe. Punishment must not appear as mere brute force, but as the act of God or of society. By significant ceremonial it must firmly ally itself with current religion and morality. It will not do for the legal protection of society to appear to the evil disposed as a mere case of "dog-eat-dog."

Not only should hanging or whipping be a ceremony but the preliminaries to the inflicting of pain, such as trying or sentencing, should likewise avail themselves of the ceremonial backing. While the efficacy of ceremony will be shown later in studying control of men through their feelings, it needs no psychological analysis to show that court procedure may be made a powerful instrument of intimidation both of accused and of on-lookers. When we note the corrosive flippancy of the daily press it is comprehensible that jurists should defend the grave demeanor, the deliberate pace, the solemn formulas, the prolix and archaic language, the sonorous oaths, the stiff formalities, the rigid and decorous procedure of the court of law. If the process of adjudging imprisonment or death to a man were allowed to