judgment.  Such a method is generally inferior and unnecessary.  If we desire to separate the fine from the coarse grains in a sand-pile we do not set to work with a microscope to measure them, grain by grain; we use a sieve.  The sieve will not do to separate iron filings from copper filings of exactly the same size, but here a magnet will do the business.  And so separation or selection can almost always be accomplished by choosing an agency adapted to the conditions; and such agencies often act automatically without the intervention of the human will.  In a voluntary association formed to accomplish a definite purpose we have a self-selected group.  Such a body may be freely open to the public, as all our library clubs and associations practically are; yet it is still selective, for no one would care to join it who is not in some way interested in its objects.  On the other hand, the qualifications for membership may be numerous and rigid, in which case the selection is more limited.  The ideal of efficiency in an association is probably reached when the body is formed for a single definite purpose and the terms of admission are so arranged that each of its members is eager above all things to achieve its end and is specially competent to work for it, the purpose of the grouping being merely to attain the object more surely, thoroughly and rapidly.  A good example is a thoroughly trained military organization, all of whose members are enthusiastic in the cause for which the body is fighting—­a band of patriots, we will say—­or perhaps a band of brigands, for what we have been saying applies to evil as well as to good associations.  The most efficient of such bodies may be very temporary, as when three persons, meeting by chance, unite to help each other over a wall that none of them could scale by himself, and, having reached the other side, separate again.  The more clearly cut and definite the purpose the less the necessity of retaining the association after its accomplishment.  The more efficient the association the sooner its aims are accomplished and the sooner it is disbanded.  Such groups or bodies, by their very nature are affairs of small detail and not of large and comprehensive purpose.  As they broaden out into catholicity they necessarily lose in efficiency.  And even when they are accomplishing their aims satisfactorily the very largeness of those aims, the absence of sharp outline and clear definition, frequently gives rise to complaint.  I know of clubs and associations that are doing an immense amount of good, in some cases altering for the better the whole intellectual or moral tone of a community, but that are the objects of criticism because they do not act in matters of detail.

“Why don’t they do something?” is the constant cry.  And “doing something,” as you may presently discover, is carrying on some small definite, relatively unimportant activity that is capable of clear description and easily fixes the attention, while the greater services, to the public and to the individual, of the association’s quiet influences pass unnoticed.  The church that has driven out of business one corner-saloon gets more praise than the one that has made better men and women of a whole generation in one neighborhood; the police force that catches one sensational murderer is more applauded than the one that has made life and property safe for years in its community by quiet, firm pressure.