Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/796

780 of the inner social milieu, and equally under the influence of the external conditions. The constitution of the property at the interior necessitated a continuous extension of the public territory, and therefore the advance of the frontier. The progress of the conquest also exerted a vigorous influence upon the constitution of the private property.

As originally the estate of the group was not distinct from that of the state, because the family group or the clan was the state, so at the moment when the differentiation between private and public property is accomplished, and the latter has two distinct domains—one a general domain formed by the frontiers of the sovereign state, the other embracing the particular domain of the state in so far as it is different from the property of the groups or individuals—a new organic tie unites these differentiated forms and gives them a common structure and a common function, though apparently different, the accidental modifications in any one of the parts producing complete variations in all other parts, and a general transformation always following as the result of each particular variation.

Thus the interpretation of the rites and creeds in connection with the frontiers of the property of the horde, the tribe, the clan, or the family serves as foundation for the theory of the frontiers of the state. At the beginning the two theories are confounded, because the property and the frontier are blended. Thereupon a real differentiation follows; but unity is re-established by the correlation and interdependence of the organs and the differentiated functions. The primitive state was a domain; the modern state is, in reality, the same, but its utilization is nowadays given to manifold agencies—to groups which are becoming more and more special, yet destined to co-operation toward one aim. This is unfortunately too often disregarded, both in theory and in practice, by those who contest the legitimacy of the constant intervention of the society in its own organization, in view of the general interest.

Just as most modern constitutions still declare that the territory of the state is one, indivisible and inalienable, within the frontiers surrounding it, so was originally the condition of