Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/398

 384 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

come from his afflicted fellows, from those who share his lowly station and lot, and who, like himself, are under the harrow. Their encouragement, indeed, will often fortify him in defiance and resistance of his spoilers. Of the slaves in old Rome we read :

They shrink from no blows ; they brave the most horrid punishments because they are proud to have deserved them. Among them, as happens sometimes among bands of criminals, there is formed a public opinion favoring everything that the public opinion of the masters condemns.

With them the point of honor is reversed. They pride themselves on lying, theft, deceit, just as their masters pride themselves on the opposite. One has but to mark the compliments they pay one another. The worst of them all, the one who has incurred the heaviest penalties, is the one who is

most admired. 1

Likewise it is impracticable for the ruling class to manage

their subjects by skillfully molding the personal ideals and valua- tions that reign in the social deeps. These are likely to shape themselves among the oppressed people quite independently of the will of the master. Indeed, he may count himself lucky if they do not antagonize his purposes in every way.

As unlikeness of interests, education, and mode of life forbids exploiters and exploited to share intimately a common life, there is between them little of the give-and-take that readily establishes itself among true associates. The leeches as a class cannot apply to the bled as a class any of those deli- cate pressures on the spirit, those volatile, suasive forms of psychic coercion, which bear upon the individual so long as he is among comrades and equals. It is safe, then, to lay it down as a rule that only those inhibitive impulses which flow from a cen- tral determinate source can be controlled by a predaceous class.

Thus, suggestion and public opinion are hardly come-at-able by an organization of seigneurs, because they do not flow out from a central source. They distill upon one from all sides. It is easy to poison a well ; but to poison the dew that is quite another thing !

While, on the other hand, the checks and stimuli connected with religion, art, personality, and personal ideals do flow out from

'LACOMBE, La Famille dans la socitte romaine, p. 316, quoted by VACCARO, Les bases sociologiques du droit et de Fttat, p. 271.