bout, not exclusively by the
preponderance of the one party, but, at least in part, through the
resignation of the other. This confession of inferiority, this
acknowledgment of defeat, or this consent that victory shall go to the
other party without complete exhaustion of the resources and chances for
struggle, is by no means always a simple phenomenon. A certain ascetic
tendency may also enter in as a purely individual factor, the tendency
to self-humiliation and to self-sacrifice, not strong enough to
surrender one's self from the start without a struggle, but emerging so
soon as the consciousness of being vanquished begins to take possession
of the soul; or another variation may be that of finding its supreme
charm in the contrast to the still vital and active disposition to
struggle. Still further, there is impulse to the same conclusion in the
feeling that it is worthier to yield rather than to trust to the last
moment in the improbable chance of a fortunate turn of affairs. To throw
away this chance and to elude at this price the final consequences that
would be involved in utter defeat--this has something of the great and
noble qualities of men who are sure, not merely of their strengths, but
also of their weaknesses, without making it necessary for them in each
case to make these perceptibly conscious. Finally, in this voluntariness
of confessed defeat there is a last proof of power on the part of the
agent; the latter has of himself been able to act. He has therewith
virtually made a gift to the conqueror. Consequently, it is often to be
observed in personal conflicts that the concession of the one party,
before the other has actually been able to compel it, is regarded by the
latter as a sort of insult, as though this latter party were really the
weaker, to whom, however, for some reason or other, there is made a
concession without its being really necessary. Behind the objective
reasons for yielding "for the sake of sweet peace" a mixture of these
subjective motives is not seldom concealed. The latter may not be
entirely without visible consequences, however, for the further
sociological attitude of the parties. In complete antithesis with the
end of strife by victory is its ending by compromise. One of the most
characteristic ways of subdividing struggles is on the basis of whether
they are of a nature which admits of compromise or not.

2. Compromise and Accommodation[234]

On the whole, compromise, espe