Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/113

 SOCIAL CONTROL 99

which he deserves ; that the wicked flourish like a green bay tree, while the righteous begs his bread." x

Besides the empirical test the theory that makes human life the sport of the gods succumbs to the victorious demonstration of law in natural events and human affairs. As group after group of happenings are seen to lie in the mesh of law and not in the palm of caprice, the expectation of recompense in this life fades before a growing skepticism. An orderly universe, with an occasional special providence, takes the place of a world riddled with the supernatural.

Thus fades the belief that men's acts dog their earthly foot- steps till little is left but the vague feeling that somehow the course of things is against him who spurns the social interdict, or for private ends transgresses the tradition of the community. A dimly seen retributive tendency in life seems to betoken a mysterious moral drift deep in the heart of the universe. Law reigns, but to natural laws is paramount a moral law. This precious reflection that sometimes gives pause to men is carefully fostered by popular novels and dramas that depict the triumph of a justice that, because it occurs only in fiction, is called 11 poetic." A realistic treatment of life would shock the popular conviction that all things work together for him who obeys time- honored precepts. The worker for the common welfare, on the other hand, is shown as, in a way, cooperating with the Universe, as backed by invincible forces, and sure to triumph in the long run.

A variant of this type of sanction is the gift of supernat- ural powers in this life. "The mediaeval saint was a powerful necromancer. He healed the sick, cast out devils, raised the dead, foretold the future, put out fires, found stolen property, brought rain, saved from shipwreck routed the enemy, cured headache, was sovereign in childbirth, and, indeed, could do almost anything that was asked of him, whether he were alive or dead." 3

1 Evolution and Ethics, p. 58.
 * Adams, p. 4 1.