Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/210

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192 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

proceeded on the basis of an appreciative interest in the work to be done ; for there is no other ground on which to obtain anything better than the aimless performance of a task. And necessarily also, on the other hand, the discipline of work has acted to develop a workmanlike attitude. It will not do to say that the work accomplished is entirely due to compulsion under a predatory regime, for the most striking advances in this respect have been wrought where the coercive force of a sports- manlike exploitation has been least.

The same view is borne out by the expressions of common sense. As has already been remarked, whenever they dispassion- ately take thought and pass a judgment on the value of human conduct, the common run of mature men approve workmanship rather than sportsmanship. At the best, they take an apolo- getic attitude toward the latter. This is well seen in the present (May, 1898) disturbance of the popular temper. While it may well be granted that the warlike raid upon which this community is entering is substantially an access of sportsmanlike exaltation, it is to be noticed that nearly all those who speak for war are at pains to find some colorable motive of another kind. Predatory exploit, simply as such, is not felt to carry its own legitimation, as it should in the apprehension of any species that is primarily of a predaceous character. What meets unreserved approval is such conduct as furthers human life on the whole, rather than such as furthers the invidious or predatory interest of one as against another.

The most ancient and most consistent habits of the race will best assert themselves when men are not speaking under the stress of instant irritation. Under such circumstances the ancient bent may even bear down the immediate conventional canons of conduct. The archaic turn of mind that inclines men to com- mend workmanlike serviceability is the outcome of long and con- sistent habituation to a course of life of such a character as is reflected by this inclination.

Man's life is activity ; and as he acts, so he thinks and feels. This is necessarily so, since it is the agent man that does the