Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/370

 356 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

crowd. Ideas or ideals germinate only in self-possession and silence. It is in the desert, in the field, in the cell, in the study, that great new truths are cradled.

Consider now the other possibility. If ideas are not accu- mulable, may they not, at least, be substitutive, so that in an assemblage the wisest thought, the soundest opinion, the shrewdest plan, that comes from any quarter will prevail and shape the eventual action of the whole ? Such a comparison, appraisal, and selection does, indeed, take place in every delib- erative body. When the conditions are favorable to cool discussion and leisurely reflection, ideas struggle for recognition and the fittest are accepted. The entire assemblage may be virtually translated to a higher plane of thinking.

In the fugitive, structureless gathering, however, there can be no fruitful debate. The test of argument cannot be applied. If it happens to have a wise leader who can keep his head, the crowd may act sagaciously. Under the momentary despotism of its captain or orator its intellectual commonness may be trans- figured into broad and profound ideas. But there is no guarantee that the master of the crowd shall be wiser than his followers. The aggressive person who first leaps upon a table, raises aloft a symbol, or utters a catching phrase is likely to become the bell- wether. Often, indeed, the leadership goes to the man of biggest voice or wildest language.

It is safe to conclude that amorphous, heterogeneous assem- blages are morally and intellectually below the average of their members. This manner of coming together unquestionably spells deterioration. In the throng-association we revert to barbarism. Now and then the crowd generates moral fervor; but it never sheds light. If at times it has furthered progress, it is because the mob, with its immense physical and emotional force, acts as an ice-breaker opening a channel for pent-up humanity. It serves at best as a battering ram to raze some moldering, bat-infested institution and clear the ground for something better. This better will be the creation of talented individuals, of deliberative bodies, never of anonymous crowds. It is easier for masses to unite on a Nay than on a Yea. This is