Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/845

 SOCIAL CONTROL 829

be so marked ? "The most important functions of ancient wor- ship were reserved for public occasions, when the whole com- munity was stirred by a common emotion." 1 "Universal hilarity prevailed ; men ate, drank, and were merry together, rejoicing before their god."* Feasting, dancing, song, and music were present. 3 We read of "orgiastic gladness," "intoxi- cation of the senses," "physical excitement of religion," and " hilarious revelry" as characterizing the later religious gatherings in contrast with the natural exhilaration of the primitive feasts. In these features we see that emotional stress and mutual hyp- notism which leads to mob mind, the acme of collective con- sciousness.

To our glib rationalism it seems childish to connect national prosperity with national worship. But look below the surface. In the early expansion of society many of the forces that unite the scattered members of a modern state are wanting. A peo- ple without letters, arts, or trade, living in scattered agricultural communities, without communication, movement, or central authority, has little to keep alive mutual interest. The ties created by education, travel, intercourse, trade, news, common literature and central administration are unknown. Were it not for the far reverberation of those periodical feasts where a com- mon emotion lifts the people to a common consciousness, the society would surely crumble.

With the religion of doctrine and precept assemblage comes to have a value for instruction, but its old virtue does not cease. The weekly union of the Christian community in a service fitted to give a common direction to all thoughts and to call forth strong emotions must have been a precious "social filament " in the Dark Ages, and even now, when the occasions for assem- blage have so multiplied, it plays no mean part in moral educa- tion.

It is perhaps an instinctive recognition of this, as much as

1 Religion of the Semites, p. 243. Ibid., p. 237.

chapters ix and xxii.
 * DYER, The Cods of Greece, p. 103. See also BANCROFT, Native Ratts, Vol. II,