Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/789

 THE GENESIS OF ETHICAL ELEMENTS 773

chivalry, and thence it has passed downward through the people until it bids fair to govern the sentiments between most of the young men and women in western societies.

The knightly ideal exalting valor, loyalty, courtesy, and generosity was perfected within a religious-military caste. Since the days of the crusades nothing has been done to make that ideal more lofty or more attractive. But at first its virtues were of the few and for the few. Since then we have universalized them, making them binding in the treatment of all ranks. And by modifying the pattern of the knight into that of the gentle- man, the chivalrous ideal has been fitted to become a reigning personal ideal in an industrial society.

In like manner Bushido, the knightly ideal that has been and still is the mold of Japanese character, was perfected within the fighting caste of Samurai. Says Nitobe : "As the sun in its rising first tips the highest peaks with russet hue, and then gradually casts its rays on the valley below, so the ethical sys- tem which first enlightened the military order drew in course of time followers from amongst the masses" ^Bushido, p. 105). " In manifold ways has Bushido filtered down from the social class where it originated and acted as leaven among the masses, furnishing a moral standard for the whole people. The precepts of knighthood, begun at first as the glory of the ilite, became in time an aspiration and inspiration to the nation at large ; and though the populace could not attain the moral height of those loftier souls, yet Yamato Damashii (the soul of Japan) ultimately came to express the Volksgeist of the Island Realm." i^Bushido, p. 108.)

It is perhaps in respect to men's valuations rather than their ideals that the influence of an elite is most marked. The prophet is the master of enthusiasms and detestations. But to the superior class it is given to modify the estimates of men. One line of improvement has consisted in drawing people away from turbulent pursuits liable to bring them into collision. Our ancestors, the primitive Germans, passed their time in drinking, gaming, and brawling, leaving industry to women and thralls. Their conversion to regular toil was not owing to contact with