, 1880-06-27
CEREMONY.
The Rise and Decay of Ceremo-
nial Institutions.
Some Points Of Interest from Herbert
Spencer's Latest Volume.
Boring the Ears-Touthing tho Hat-chuth-Going
The Morning Call-Gitrnaklng-.
Shaking Misunderstanding.

Netr ToTE Home Journal
| At the present day ceremonial observances
| hold a relation so subordinate to political law
and the principles OF morality that we naturally
think Of them as holding in the order OF their
! origination the same relation OF dopendence;
| we instinctiveIy regard them as the outcome and
expression OF political and religious institutions.
The philosophy of evolution, as set forth by
Herbert Spencer in his latest volume.* easily re-
verses this supcrfcially presumed relationship,
aud makes political and religious control the
outgrowth Of primitive ceremonial control.
By CEREMONIAL CONTROL
is meant that more or less deinttly prescribed
code Of obscrvances regulating those purely e1-
tornal relations uf men which are included under
''munners or t' behavior" Tho marks Of the
primordialness of ceremonial control arc:
That traces Of it are found among the
higher animals, as when, on the Rp-
proach Of some formidable Newfoundland
or mastiff, small spaniel will, in its terror,
throw itself on its back, legs in the ARA prlm-
tive obesance and petition for mercy. Second
1y, it is the most widely diTused form Of re-
straint. entering into and enveloping all other
kinds. Tho priest, however arrogant his as
sumption, makes civil salute: and the officer
Of the law performs his duty subject to certain
propltintory words and movements. 1t is, final
iy, a species Of control which Is ever renewing
jtsclf taking new form ind expression with
every fresh relation among individuals Thus
this ceremonial control holds to the more deti-
nifty organized kinds Of government somewhat
the same relation that protoplasm holds to de-
veloped animal organisms, being that kind Of
control from which all other kinds dcrive their
sustenance- Strip from social life the diHuscd, |
all ll-ponotratfng spirit of ceremonial observance,
and the organized forms of society lose their
vitality and conference, all government becomes
impossible.
Ceremonies have two roots
LOVE AND FEAR
In the earlier stages Of social development those
having their oriyion in fear naturally predom-
monies tlat undergo much elaboration ad-.
yunoing from simple to highly complex and |
dcflnit forms. The reason is evident Society |
organizes itself primarily by the agency OF |
physical force; first by the Individual ascend
ancy Of the strongest mnn: secondly, By tho |
Of the strongest community. In |
this way transition is made from family iso1a-
simple community to the compounding OF COM
munitics into larger and larger societies. The
instrument OF progress Is always war, conquest,
Early government consists In
regulations expressing and determining the
various degrees OF subtection in which ndt-
yiduills and classes stand to one another. That
Is, 1t is purely ceremonial; and the ceremonies
that prevail, the ceremonies that have relation
to the social structure, the ceremonies, there-
fore from which the higher forms of govern
nent must evolve, arc ceremonies having their
motive In fear and their aim In propitiation.
The primitive man fcRrS the living and he
eurs the dead. To propitiate the good siil Of the
after he practices observances similar TO those
y which he seeks to propitiate the favor Of the