Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/353

 SOCIAL CONTROL 339

times, when laws are seen to be matters of enactment, when reli- gion, freed from the control of priesthood and confided to the laity, ceases to give minute guidance in life, and when the moral authority of the exceptional men touches its nadir.

But whether the appeal to self-interest, silently insinuating itself into religion, philosophy, ethics, and literature, rides splendidly at the swaying summit of society's system of control, surrounded by the Muses and the Graces, or whether thrust out of the high places by dogmas and dreams, it works quietly and unobserved in a humbler sphere, shaping the character of youth through homely proverbs and copy-book maxims and moral tales and Sunday-school books in any case we can never do without it. It never gets in the way of science. It relieves the strain on other parts of the system. It is the best custodian of whole fields of conduct. It alone can reach certain natures. It enlists parents and friends, all those solicitous about the indi- vidual, in the task of controlling him. And so while it may not be the battlement.it will always remain the half invisible founda- tion of a system of social control.

K i) WARD ALS WORTH Ross. STANFORD UNIVKRSITY, California.