e soft and pliable enough, and responded naturally
to the touch of pity, when fastened into a machine of that sort become
callous and rigid, and throw off every extraneous application that can
be made to them with perfect apathy. An appeal is made to the ties of
individual friendship: the body in general know nothing of them. A case
has occurred which strongly called forth the compassion of the person
who was witness of it; but the body (or any special deputation of
them) were not present when it happened. These little weaknesses and
'compunctious visitings of nature' are effectually guarded against,
indeed, by the very rules and regulations of the society, as well as by
its spirit. The individual is the creature of his feelings of all sorts,
the sport of his vices and his virtues--like the fool in Shakespear,
'motley's his proper wear':--corporate bodies are dressed in a moral
uniform; mixed motives do not operate there, frailty is made into a
system, 'diseases are turned into commodities.' Only so much of any
one's natural or genuine impulses can influence him in his artificial
capacity as formally comes home to the aggregate conscience of those
with whom he acts, or bears upon the interests (real or pretended), the
importance, respectability, and professed objects of the society. Beyond
that point the nerve is bound up, the conscience is seared, and the
torpedo-touch of so much inert matter operates to deaden the best
feelings and harden the heart. Laughter and tears are said to be the
characteristic signs of humanity. Laughter is common enough in such
places as a set-off to the mock-gravity; but who ever saw a public body
in tears? Nothing but a job or some knavery can keep them serious for
ten minutes together.(1)

Such are the qualifications and the apprenticeship necessary to make a
man tolerated, to enable him to pass as a cypher, or be admitted as a
mere numerical unit, in any corporate body: to be a leader and dictator
he must be diplomatic in impertinence, and officious in every dirty
work. He must not merely conform to established prejudices; he must
flatter them. He must not merely be insensible to the demands of
moderation and equity; he must be loud against them. He must not simply
fall in with all sorts of contemptible cabals and intrigues; he must be
indefatigable in fomenting them, and setting everybody together by the
ears. He must not only repeat, but invent lies. He must make speeches
and write hand