It is perhaps scarcely necessary to argue that dividing the world of persons into a few who command and a many who obey is neither practicable nor inherently rational. The impossibility of it and the irrationality rest back upon the same fact, namely, that both those who command and those who obey know themselves and one another as persons. There is something present all ’round that is stronger than force. A full measure of obedience never can be exacted from the many, and the few cannot bring themselves to exact it. It is fascinating to witness the possessors of power compromising with themselves in the use of it; it is inspiring to see strength of spirit in those who are shorn of power. Persons just have to get together upon the sheer basis of personality. There is a kind of freedom, as also a kind of get-together, in herd-action, no doubt. For such action takes down the bars and lets something inside of us caper. This capering may be lightsome, as in a New Orleans Mardi Gras or a New York City election-night jamboree; or it may be strenuous, as in mass support of a football team engaged in a hard game; or it may be destructive, as in an angry mob. By emotional release of this sort people can be made to cohere on behalf of an institution, a party, or a cause. Consequently leaders of many interests--political, economic, religious--have developed a technic for causing people to move in herds when, because of emotional release, they think they are acting freely as individuals. It is not to be denied that release of this general type, though it be partial, though it lends itself to self-deception, though it be dangerous, may be serviceable at times. Leastways, one can scarcely fail to sympathize when minds long subjected to a narrow and numbing routine break loose and go on a spiritual picnic! There are times when frolicsome nonsense brings benefits deeper than the momentary satisfaction. We must not forget that even our better and wiser selves perpetually rebreathe the partly exhausted air that issues from our own lungs. We ever need the open! Further, when alternatives have been weighed and a decision reached, it may sometimes be the part of wisdom, though it be dangerous, to put all our energy into an executive act, postponing further thought for the time being.