Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/483

 PRESENT PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 467

great variety of sects seems harbinger of the day when there will be as many creeds as there are believers. Science, of course, being a verified transcript of reality, can be but one; but just as a widening circle of light enlarges the surrounding ring of dark- ness, a growth of the Known gives fresh opportunities to specu- late about the Unknown. The widening scope for individuality is seen in the coexistence in our occidental culture of a greater num- ber of types of music, styles of painting or architecture, forms of literature, theories of life and conduct. Since these appeal to the needs of diverse temperaments, it is unlikely that the spirit of unification will bring about the triumph of one over the rest or their co-adaptation into one form. The Protestant will not absorb the Catholic, nor the Methodist the Presbyterian. Italian and German opera, lyric and dramatic poetry, realistic fiction and romance, Stoicism and Epicurism, marriage as sacrament and marriage as contract, the " woman " ideal and the " lady " ideal, will persist side by side because they meet the needs of different people.- Just as a developed society partly compensates for the cramping effect of specialism by offering the individual a variety of vocations to select from, so a developed culture affords multi- farious opportunities from which each can choose what is con- genial to his nature.

The question posed is, to be sure, part of a larger question, namely : What are the influences and conditions that socialize or individualize? St. Simon thinks the life of humanity alternates between " organic " epochs and " critical " epochs. It may be there is no such rhythm in history, but there are certainly up-building forces and down-tearing forces, which shift their balance from time to time. It is our business to discover which processes are emancipating and which are limiting; to ascertain what institu- tions and types of education conduce to self-determination, and how far this is compatible with social unity ; to inquire whether it is well to standardize ideas, beliefs, and tastes, or, on the contrary, to encourage variety, nonconformity, even eccentricity, for the sake of having a culture that will provide for every sort of mind its natural aliment.