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for a principle, devotion to an ideal; his good conduct is a func- tion of his thinking, of his "conscience." On the other hand, the springs of utter wickedness are for the most part not malev- olence, but simple primal passions, such as blood-thirst, love of destruction, lust, anger, envy, jealousy, and greed. Now, feel- ing is much richer in means of instant vivid expression than thought, and in a throng each is more impressed by the looks, cries, gestures, and attitudes that express his neighbor's feelings than by the words that convey his neighbor's ideas. Emotion here pulls the longer oar. Assemblage, moreover, usually occurs under perturbing conditions which tend to paralyze thought. In the crowd, therefore the reason is so beclouded that the motives to virtue, so far as they are a function of one's thinking, can by no means compete with the motives to evil. Such virtues as are bound up with self-control law-abidingness, veracity, prudence, thrift, respect for others' rights if they survive in the crowd, will do so by sheer force of habit.
Turning next to the intellectual traits of the crowd, we note first of all that it is more dogmatic and intolerant than its com- ponent individuals. This is by some ascribed to the sense of invincibility that is inspired by numbers. But the explanation is simpler. Although an idea is totally different from a feeling,' we may have feelings about ideas. Belief is a form of emotion. We speak of "energy of conviction." We speak of persons as "warm," "luke-warm," or "cold" in their faith. Faith is rightly thought of as a force able to "move mountains." Now, convic- tion, like all other emotions, reaches its highest pitch in the crowd, and so crowds tend to be intolerant. United by identity of belief, people are, of course, more impatient of contradiction than when united by identity of 'passion or aim. Hence the paradox that throngs of gentle pious persons pilgrims, monks, nuns, devotees become the most ferocious in the presence of counter-manifestants. Every crowd is formidable on the point it cares most for, and in the ages of faith it is as natural that mobs should riot over the nature of the Trinity as it is that in our age there should be tumults over Wagner's operas or the differ- ence of a cent an hour in the pay of workingmen.
