SOCIAL CONTROL 835
course of belligerents or the negotiations of ambassadors. It flourishes in militant societies, but not solely as suggested by the obsequiousness of inferiors. It is most observed by the members of a military class, and by those who command rather than by those who obey. In caste societies, while the lower orders may practice humble obeisances, it is in the highest caste that ceremony grows most rankly. The forms of politeness have passed from above downwards and not from below upwards. The courtesy of chivalry was for warriors, not for burghers. It is noble or courtier, not peasant, that feels most the yoke of etiquette. In other words, wherever place or pursuit has fos- tered excessive self-assertion, there society imposes its rules of behavior designed to check arrogance and suggest the sacred- ness of another's personality.
But why does society later allow this code to lapse? Is it, as Mr. Spencer asserts, due to the increase of sympathy and social feeling? Partly, but not wholly. While granting that industrialism develops a pacific temper that does not need a rigid ceremonial discipline, let us not overlook the finer type of control that has come in. What now curbs men in their intercourse is not formality, but idea. Ideas of " human dignity , ' ' 41 equality before God ," " divine sonship," " value of the undying soul," etc., which saturate the culture we are bathed in till every- one is more or less affected by them, are the moderating influ- ences of today. These notions, partly implicit in Christianity, partly drawn from Greek thought at the Renaissance, and partly struck out by the humanitarian idealism of the last two cen- turies, inspire in us that reverence for the personality of another which in Persia, Arabia, or China was bound up with ceremonial observance.
III.
Passing now from the ceremony of intercourse to the cere- mony of occasions 1 new problems appear. It is a feature of
1 On this topic I am glad to acknowledge valuable help from an able paper on Ceremony by a student of mine, Mr. B. M. Palmer.
