Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/656

 640 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

millions of times, here and there, now and then, are often of far greater social importance than the decrees of parliaments. There is another particular in which sociology, as a mere study of groups or institutions, is blindfolded to objects indispensable to its investigation. Sociology must take note, not only of temporary contacts between scattered individuals, but also of forms of asso- ciation that overleap intervals of space and time. These are of such significance, both in quality and in quantity, that some of them must force themselves even upon the student of groups. And he may conceivably make a definition of the word "group" or the word "institution," from which none of these which he has taken into account would necessarily be excluded, however unlikely it is that he would get them all properly into his perspec- tive. His habitual concept of a group may be such as not to sunder from his society the Frenchman at the antipodes of France, who, as Tarde says, is a Frenchman still. The student of groups and institutions may possibly give adequate account of the part played by literature in molding men and societies. He may recognize every author and every book and every journal as the creator of society. If so, then Robinson Crusoe, on his desert island, was in a group, if he had a Bible or a copy of Homer from that bounteous ship's store; and if by reading he warmed a little his desolate heart with thoughts which he shared with the wise and goodly company in all Christendom and in all ages who have been quickened by the words he read, then lonesome Crusoe was in a society of letters with all of those living afar and long dead. The kind of interactions which it seems so difficult, if not absurd, to think of as group-phenomena are of the greatest signifi- cance to sociology: and, moreover, they become manageable and fruitful objects of study as soon as the sociologist's task and theme are adequately conceived. The part they play in making individual and social life what life is, none can doubt, though none as yet can fully comprehend it. There is a tide of human action and influence which beats about every individual of the race and evokes from each his self-realizing response.

One of the greatest hindrances to the progress of this new science has been the difficulty of stating sociological problems. We have been possessed of a general wish to understand society,