Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/673

 SOCIAL CONTROL 659

there went on, for a while, an ennobling and refining of Greek character. But certainly in 60 A. D. the hope of the classic world lay not in the new desires that, fostered by the world's riches flung into the lap of Rome, were rapidly undermining the old simplicity, but in the little ascetic communities in the back streets of Ephesus and Philippi.

The unsuspected influence of conventional values is shown by the fate of the Humanists. The Humanist enjoyed release from authority, as does the man of today. But, so great was the disruption of ideas at his time, he was steadied by no such long- elaborated system of values as shapes the choices of the modern man. Consequently his attitude toward life was inad- missible, and he fell into ill-odor and contempt. With his crav- ing for praise, appreciation of the sensuous, contempt of a quiet life, scorn of domesticity, neglect of character, enthusiasm for ancient learning, worship of success, and apotheosis of genius, he made sad shipwreck. Such men could not be tolerated, and their free and unconventional valuation of life came justly to be regarded as a dangerous distemper.

The new methods in mission work testify to the possibility of altering character by influencing valuations. To the old- time missionary, seeking to save souls by changingthe heathen's religious beliefs and worships, succeeds a teacher and civilizer, striving to develop in his flock an appreciation of clothing, cleanliness, privacy, order, property, domestic affection, and family unity, the elementary goods of the white man. And it is this patient guidance of backward peoples along the path by which the civilized races have reached their present elevation that bids fair to bear fruit both abundant and lasting. The lightning process of converting, baptizing, and veneering with a thin layer of morality makes the docile neophyte whose charac- ter collapses the moment the supporting hand is withdrawn. Such was the work of the Jesuits in California and Paraguay, m China and Japan, and such has been too much of the mission work of this century. The patient fostering of new wants and imparting of new standards of appreciation produce results less