A rational principle of justice may prevail in the entire structure while governing differentially correct associations between particular performances and rewards. The varieties of demeanors that are appropriate to a particular status within the system may be perceived as variations of a more general pattern.We are suggesting the possibility of a principle of discipline that derives from the formal style of the rational scheme and which works against centrifugal tendencies and heterogeneity.The resulting coherence will be in evidence as outwardly proper conduct and appearance.One would then ask how the sensibility of esthetic appreciation is summoned for direction, information and control in various concrete situations.The dominant consideration underlying this construction would not be found in the fields of means-ends relations but in an allpervadingsense of piety (i.e., in accordance with Burke’s definition of the term, a sure-footed conviction of ‘what properly goes with what’).12The question whether the syntactic composition of the formal scheme is the leading metaphor for the interpretation of the composition of actual performances and relations is obviously difficult to investigate.