re illicit
(that is, socially unsanctioned) satisfactions without incurring
the penalty of social disapproval. Part of this discrepancy is
not to be set down to the evils men actually do so much as
the irrationality and fanaticism of the codes which they have
been taught to profess. This is the case, for example, where
excessive Puritanism or fanaticism, not possible for most men,
is imposed upon them by an arbitrary and fanatical teaching.
They will then pretend to types of action socially regarded as
virtues in order to avoid the penalties incurred by not practicing
them. The desire for "respectability" is responsible
for no small amount of pretension, illustrated pathetically in
cases where individuals, to satisfy the standards of their associates,
live beyond their means physically, socially, or intellectually.[1]

[Footnote 1: "Many Bostonians, _crede experto_ (and inhabitants
of other cities, too, I fear), would be happier men and women to-day
if they could once for all abandon the notion of keeping up a Musical
Self and without shame let people hear them call a symphony a nuisance."
James: _Psychology_, vol. I, p. 311.]

Again, codes of action remain formally accepted long after
they have ceased to be taken seriously. In States that went
"dry" where there was no majority public sentiment in their
favor, "bootlegging," the illicit making and selling of whiskey,
was practiced freely, because not many people regarded
prohibition as a serious matter, or its infringement as a serious
crime. Legal codes remain not infrequently a generation
behind public opinion, and many ideas are verbally professed
that nobody takes quite seriously.

THE SOCIAL EFFECTIVENESS OF PRAISE AND BLAME. How far the
social estimates of approval and disapproval affect the conduct
of the individual depends on the degree to which, through
education, public opinion, and law, he is made part of the
group. In primitive society, even the slightest details of
conduct were regulated by the group, through an elaborate system
of punishments for slight infringements. In civilized
society, the development of a sense of personal selfhood and
social recognition of its importance has to a degree freed
individual action from complete domination by the group. This
has in part been compensated by the education of the contemporary
citizen to national interests, and social sympathy,
which render him susceptible to the praise and blame of public
opinion.