"
"In balancing the books of life one must have regard to both sides
of the ledger," responded the Minor Poet. "A crowd, I admit, of
itself creates nothing; on the other hand, it receives ideals into
its bosom and gives them needful shelter. It responds more readily
to good than to evil. What greater stronghold of virtue than your
sixpenny gallery? Your burglar, arrived fresh from jumping on his
mother, finds himself applauding with the rest stirring appeals to
the inborn chivalry of man. Suggestion that it was right or proper
under any circumstances to jump upon one's mother he would at such
moment reject with horror. 'Thinking in communities' is good for
him. The hooligan, whose patriotism finds expression in squirting
dirty water into the face of his coster sweetheart: the
boulevardiere, primed with absinth, shouting 'Conspuez les Juifs!'--
the motive force stirring them in its origin was an ideal. Even
into making a fool of itself, a crowd can be moved only by
incitement of its finer instincts. The service of Prometheus to
mankind must not be judged by the statistics of the insurance
office.
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