Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/835

 SOCIAL CONTROL 821

control of the individual. The foundations of order must be laid completely bare ere we can wisely go about to broaden or underpin them. Many great thinkers have begun the task, but in their eagerness to have this pier strengthened or that pillar kept, they have failed to make a thorough exploration. In his Republic, Plato has given perhaps the best review of the condi- tions of order. But Machiavelli uttered certain of its secrets. Rousseau fingered the springs of social feeling. Burke laid down the requisites of stability. Napoleon told how men are governed. Carlyle demonstrated the value of persons. Mazzini preached the efficacy of ideals. Horace Mann championed the worth of enlightenment. Victor Hugo showed what society owes to art. Guyeau pointed out the power of suggestion. Ibsen reminds of the curative value of freedom. But too often each has declared his own the cornerstone and reviled those who found solidity in some other prop or buttress. And society, distracted by the cries of partisans, has excitedly torn down or hastily built up the various supports of its order with little rational idea of what it was doing.

The social system of control has been a dark jungle harboring warring bands of guerrillas ; but when investigators with the scientific method have fully occupied this region the disorder and dacoity ought to cease. Surely there must be some general principles from the vantage ground of which to pass upon the conflicting pretensions of drill sergeant and anarchist, of autori- tarian and suasionist, of priest and schoolmaster, of censor and artist, of Jesuit and freethinker, of tory and radical, of prude and Adamite, of moral philosopher and evolutionist. And these we shall get when an exploration of the subject shall show how many modes and instruments of social control there are, and enable us to appraise each at its true value. As soon as the conditions which reconcile order with progress are made clear to the leaders of opinion, the control of society over its members ought to become more conscious and effective than it now is, and the dismal see-sawing between change and reaction that has been the curse of this century ought to disappear.