o cultivate a state of mind and establish a code of
morals different from that of the world about it and for this it claims
divine authority. In order to accomplish this end it invariably seeks to
set itself off in contrast with the rest of the world. The simplest and
most effective way to achieve this is to adopt a peculiar form of dress
and speech. This, however, invariably makes its members objects of scorn
and derision, and eventually of persecution. It would probably do this
even if there was no assumption of moral superiority to the rest of the
world in this adoption of a peculiar manner and dress.

Persecution tends to dignify and sanctify all the external marks of the
sect, and it becomes a cardinal principle of the sect to maintain them.
Any neglect of them is regarded as disloyalty and is punished as heresy.
Persecution may eventually, as was the case with the Puritans, the
Quakers, the Mormons, compel the sect to seek refuge in some part of the
world where it may practice its way of life in peace.

Once the sect has achieved territorial isolation and territorial
solidarity, so that it is the dominant power within the region that it
occupies, it is able to control the civil organization, establish
schools and a press, and so put the impress of a peculiar culture upon
all the civil and political institutions that it controls. In this case
it tends to assume the form of a state, and become a nationality.
Something approaching this was achieved by the Mormons in Utah. The most
striking illustration of the evolution of a nationality from a sect is
Ulster, which now has a position not quite that of a nation within the
English empire.

This sketch suggests that the sect, like most other social institutions,
originates under conditions that are typical for all institutions of the
same species; then it develops in definite and predictable ways, in
accordance with a form or entelechy that is predetermined by
characteristic internal processes and mechanisms, and that has, in
short, a nature and natural history which can be described and explained
in sociological terms. Sects have their origin in social unrest to which
they give a direction and expression in forms and practices that are
largely determined by historical circumstances; movements which were at
first inchoate impulses and aspirations gradually take form; policies
are defined, doctrine and dogmas formulated; and eventually an
administrative machinery and ef