ABSTRACT
Autocracy is defined as independent or self-derived power. Authority, on the other hand, educationalists may qualify as not being self-derived and not independent. Authority is not uneasy; captious, harsh and indulgent by turns. This is the action of autocracy, which is self-sustained as it is self-derived, and is impatient and resentful, on the watch for transgressions, and swift to take offence. It is an old story that the failures in life are not the people who lack good intentions; they are those whose physical nature has not acquired the habit of prompt and involuntary obedience. So far as the daily routine of small obediences goes, educationalists help them thus to fulfil a natural function—the response of docility to authority. The importance of prevention is fully recognised: police, army, navy, are largely preventive forces; and the home authority, too, does well to place its forces on the Alert Service.
