Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/366

354 may lay hold upon the other self, and further its interests by his own plan and purpose.

In its broadest aspect the tension between the ideal and the real is the fundamental fact of all subjects of study, especially those dealing with mind and life. Logic rests on the tension of life as manifested in the form of the judgment, which tension the syllogism is to release and satisfy. Language finds its explanation in the same fact. A verb is the expression of the tension between the real and ideal in the life of thought, and all other parts of speech have to do with the poles of the tension. Ethics has reference to that quality of the tension which gives victory to the ideal over the real; and æsthetics deals with such victory as achieved. History records progress in the achievement of ideals, and literature sets up the ideal in advance of achievement. Thus whether man thinks about the world or acts in it, his fundamental category of thought and life is the tension between the real and the ideal ; between the actual and the potential; between the fixed and the changing; between the finite and the infinite. However much the realist may insist on keeping the feet on the firm earth of facts, he betrays a consciousness of a deeper truth, namely, some ideal condition of things to be reached by his insistence; and however much the idealist may be inspired by bright visions of a better world, he must yet keep his standing ground in the present, real world. Neither the realist nor the idealist can think and plan and purpose except by the reaction of the ideal upon the real. Unattainable ideals may be the discouragement of life, yet none can live and act except under the law which they impose. There is no thought and life except in and through the tension between the ideal and the real. Sociology and pedagogy exhibit man in conscious tension with himself,—in conscious effort for self-realization. Self-realization, and not self-preservation, is the highest law of life; and sociology and pedagogy are both specific manifestations of that law. These two subjects, taken in their fullest sense, constitute the theory and art of self-control to the end of a more perfect life in the individual. All other