102 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
tion that their beloved Master is at this moment living and that he watches their efforts, grieving when they stumble, rejoicing when they stand. This is the most sublimated form of control by belief.
Of the four types of supernatural sanction we have examined, the third is the most characteristic, as it implies the greatest sub- ordination of belief to a scheme of rewards and punishments. Taking it as representatives let us note its excellences and defects.
In the first place its rewards and punishments are cheap and can be amplified to any degree. In the second place, as from the all-seeing eyes of a god there can be no concealment, these sanctions admirably supplement law. 1 Thirdly the blending of belief with law increases the prestige of the latter and provides restraint in cases where the machinery of justice fails to operate. The last judgment is simply an earthly judicial inquest freed from its limitations and exalted to the highest conceivable perfection. The idea of a divine tribunal excludes all brow-beating or cajol- ing, all conflict of testimony, all partiality, all overlooking of desert by too close attention to outward deed. The divine awards conform to an ideal justice which human awards aspire to but never quite reach.
On the other hand, the drawbacks to this form of control are many. First, the Unseen practically becomes a mere appen- dix to the Seen. All man's speculation regarding the Invisible is unduly subordinated to the task of regulating people in their social life. Such a shackling of the noble speculative impulse checks the development of human personality, which is, after all, the end for which social life exists. Secondly, this kind of control gets in the way of new and higher forms of control. The guidance of men by ideals, enforced by honor and self- respect, which has become so general since the Reformation,
1 " The notion of employing curses in defense of property is very ancient." " It was mostly applied to objects that were peculiarly exposed to depredation, such as graves, books, deeds." EARLE, Land Charters and Saxonic Documents, p. 25.
