102 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL 
ner, the employees are usually better off than those in the 
small private concerns who are subject to the personal ex- 
ploitation of the proprietor. On the other hand, in special 
cases of distress the administration of the corporation can- 
not act as generously as the private owner who is not re- 
sponsible to anyone for his management. Subordination 
to a group is therefore an advantage to the individual if he 
is helped by a formal, impartial, factual, and business-like 
relationship. Itis a disadvantage if the individual is helped 
by a benevolent, altruistic, and merciful relationship. 
Subordination to a crowd, to a group actually assem- 
bled, varies also considerably from subordination to an in- 
dividual. In organized associations which function as legal 
persons, the participation of the superior in the relation- 
ship loses the personal elements and obtains more rational, 
superpersonal elements. In crowds, the participation of 
the superior loses also the personal elements, but this time 
it obtains infra-individual collective emotional elements. 
It is this fact that explains the merciless cruelty of the 
Roman circus public, of the medieval religious persecu- 
tions, and of the modern lynching parties. On the other 
hand, crowds are sometimes capable of great enthusiasm 
and magnanimity.} 
Subordination to an Impersonal Principle 
Subordination to an impersonal principle or a law does 
not involve a reciprocity. The individuals who do not obey 
a law are not really subordinate to that law. If they change 
it, they really abolish the old law and put a new one in its 
place. In so far as they are subordinate to the new law, 
they feel themselves determined by it, but they do not de- 
termine it. Modern people who have learned to differen- 
tiate between the field of spontaneous activity and that of 
1 Soz., pp. 172-77.