The measure that remains is the permanent standard after every temporary standard of the age has been exhausted. The residual man continues to form himself according to that measure even though the age offers no confirmation and no shared application. The measure itself is unbroken. Only the collective conditions that once made it public have disappeared.
Young men who still seek a reliable standard often look for residual authorities or residual communities that will apply the measure for them. Most of those authorities have already adjusted the measure to fit the requirements of the age. The residual path does not wait for external application. It continues to apply the permanent measure from the interior center that still perceives its authority.
This interior application is the residual form of the older traditional measure that once ordered both the individual and the civilization. The man who keeps the measure present already performs the residual duty. That duty does not become less real because it is no longer collective.
Keep the measure that remains. Do not wait for the age to restore conditions in which higher standards are publicly enforced. The residual act is to keep the permanent criterion effective in every concrete decision. That effectiveness is the continuity of the higher type under residual conditions.