Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/20

 6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

them out into definiteness, making them susceptible to the sug- gestions of public opinion, and thus fitting each person for mem- bership in each institution to the extent of which he is capable. These become his beliefs. Desire is common to men and ani- mals. Belief is only for self-conscious beings. The sexual pas- sion, without social education, ends only in animal-like pairing; but with the social beliefs of right and wrong, love of home, respect for women, hope for children, it forms the p.sychic basis of the social institution, the family. Hunger leads animals to seize and destroy their prey ; but with the social beliefs of right and wrong, regard for others, love of work, provision for the future, it becomes the basis of the institution of property in material things. Religious and political beliefs have but the weakest germ of desire in animals, but in man they form his most powerful motives. Social beliefs, therefore, are the psychic foun- dation of each institution. They furnish the basis in the affections of each person which alone makes possible his responsiveness to the appeals of those with whom he must cooperate. The insti- tution in which he finds himself is both the cause and effect of his beliefs. Every enduring socio-psychic motive or belief builds about itself a form of social organization. Sexual and parental love envelops itself with the institution of the family ; conscience and belief in moral perfection, with the church ; class interest, with political parties; the love of work, with industrial property and business corporations; and so on. It might be thought that the ethical motive — which may be defined as the longing for a more perfect relationship with others — demands an exception to this statement. There is, indeed, no ethical institution separate from other institutions, because the ethical motive tends in time to diffuse itself through all institutions and to modify their structure. The exception is only apparent. The ethical motive, in so far as it really leads to action, is identical with a religious belief in a perfect unseen ruler and a perfect society, and with the consciousness of guilt which a violation of that belief pro- vokes." The fact that it tends to modify other institutions is not peculiar to the religious belief. The psychic principles which ' See below, chap. ix. Right.