Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/257

 SOCIAL CONTROL 245

of control by constituted organs he saw no remedy save in the return to personal ascendencies and personal fealty. 1 Salvation lay in brushing aside dogmas of "equality" and -'rights," and fostering that humble frame of mind that bows gladly to the natural superior. To this end Carlyle made of history a drama, 2 exalted the role of great men, 3 belittled that of the people, over- emphasized loyalty as a principle of order/ and sought to trace back all existing ranks, dignities, and titles to primitive personal ascendencies. 5 In the flinging off of authority led by Luther and ending with Rousseau Carlyle saw but the casting aside of "shams," "false heroes," and "make-believe authorities," "the painful but indispensable first preparative for true sovereignty getting place among us."

It is now clear to us that Carlyle missed the drift of the age. He did not see that a new type of control was made possible by the cult of the individual. When he wrote the moral method of democracy, namely, the guidance of men by ideals to which they are held by pride and self-respect, had not yet shown its efficacy. Not on the continent, but in America, where it is a lineal descendant of Puritanism, do we see democracy providing its own antidote. Here the steadiness of a social control through self-masterhood lessens both the mood and the need of hero worship. Rare spirits, no doubt, will never be wholly defrauded of their birthright over the souls of lesser men. In emergencies, in troublous times, in new countries, and on frontiers, in the con- tact of higher races with lower the Strong Man still comes to

1 I lero worship is " a fact inexpressibly precious ; the most solacing fact one sees in the world at present. There is an everlasting hope in it for the management of rid."

a " The history of the world is the biography of great men."

' "They were the leaders of men, these great ones; the modelers, patterns, and, in a sense, creators of whatsoever the mass of men contrived to do or attain."

<" Society is founded on hero worship. 1 U-i. worship never dies nor can die." " Loyalty, the life breath of all society." "Admiration for one higher than himself is t<> this hour and at all hours the vivifying influence in man's life."

heroarchy" " Society everywhere is some representation .... of a graduated wor- i heroes.'*
 * "All dignities of rank < n wlm h human association rests are what we may call a