Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/340

 322 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING

The distinction between the individual and corporate forms of business is important for this discussion because they tend to produce somewhat different mental types, and the larger the corporate business becomes the more pronounced is the differentiation. The man of &quot; big business &quot; is a definite and extremely significant species of the genus &quot; business man,&quot; and is, it seems to me, the logical though somewhat exaggerated development of the type which corporate ac tivity, so characteristic a feature of our time, tends to pro duce. And yet an undue emphasis on this distinction would not be consistent with the purpose we have here in mind, which is to bring out those broad mental characteristics which are common to business men of all grades.

I. Consider the importance of the business man. In the early ages of the world he was either non-existent, or insig nificant and despised. Under the system of strict clan economy business men did not exist as a differentiated class ; under the system of domestic, or household, economy the class began to develop, and the business men were mostly travelling salesmen who went hither and thither, generally in groups, wherever the danger was not too great, and carried with them the goods they had for sale. The pedlar is a survival of that early type. Under the system of town economy, which followed, manufactures in the literal sense of the term developed, business grew in volume, and the men engaged in it increased in importance. As the sys tem of national economy grew up on the basis of the town system, the business men came to figure largely in public estimation. Today we live in a world economy ; the manu facture and exchange of goods have assumed enormous pro portions and absorbed the energies of a large proportion of the people ; the direction of industry offers a very great and attractive field for personal achievement and the winning of fortune and distinction, and requires ability of a high order. It is quite impossible to foresee any limit to this economic development. Certainly it is drawing into its service larger volumes of human energy every day. Men are now enam-

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