Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/169

 INTERPRETATION OF SAVAGE SOCIETY 155

man was able to transform inedible into edible materials, to smelt and forge iron, and to enlarge the habitable world by regu- lating the temperature of the colder regions. Mechanical inven- tion is to be viewed as control. It utilizes new forces or old forces in new ways, making them do work, and assist man in squeezing out of nature values not before suspected, not within reach, or not commonly enjoyed. The gregariousness of ani- mals and the associated life of men are modes of control, because numbers and co-operation make life more secure. Language is a powerful instrument of control, because through it knowledge, tradition, standpoint, ideals, stimulations, copies, are transmitted and increased. Forms of government are aids to control, by providing safety and fair play within the group and organized resistance to intrusions from without. Religion assists control, reinforcing by a supernatural sanction those modes of behavior which by experience have been determined to be moral, i. e., socially advantageous. Art aids control by diffusing admirable copies for imitation, with the least resistance and the maximum of contagion. Play is an organic preparation and practice for control. Marriage secures better provision and training to chil- dren than promiscuity. Medicine keeps the organism in order or repairs it. Liberty is favorable to control, because with it the individual has opportunity to develop ideas and values by fol- lowing his own bent which he would not develop under repression. The human mind is pre-eminently the organ of manipulation, of adjustment, of control. It operates through what we call knowledge. This in turn is based on memory and the ability to compare a present situation with similar situations in the past and to revise our judgments and actions in view of the past experience. By this means the world at large is con- trolled more successfully as time goes on. Knowledge thus becomes the great force in control, and those societies are the most successful and prosperous in which the knowledge is most disseminated, most reliable, and most intensive. This is the sense in which knowledge is power. And as to morality, if we should single out and make a catalogue of actions which we are accustomed to call laudable and virtuous, we should see that they