Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/693

. By it not merely the material conditions of the stability of the family, but its sociological form as well, is assured. In this case again however, at least in the opinion of many, this centripetal self-maintenance of a small group comes into antagonism with the containing civic whole. The latter will be absolute, and for that reason it can concede to its parts only a relative character.

Modern inclinations try by other forms of device to secure the same ends which were served by the patent of nobility and the “dead hand.” The fundamental idea of both these forms was the withdrawal of the possession guaranteed by the form from the uncertainty to which the fortunes of the individual are liable, and its establishment as an independent, objective, durable structure. Thus certain associations bind their members by the provision that in case of withdrawal the contribution of the seceder to the association is not repaid. The idea behind this provision is that the group and its interests have placed themselves quite beyond the sphere of interests pertaining to the individual members; that the group leads a life of its own; that it completely detaches the quotas of possessions from their former owners who contributed them; and that it can no more give these back than the organic body can give back to their sources the particles of food that have become parts of its substance. The continued and self-sustained persistence of the group is promoted, not merely directly by this mode of procedure, but still further indirectly by creating in the individual member a lively sense of a group-unity which is a super-individual existence independent of all personal variations.

The sociological technique of self-preservation operates again in higher potency in the regulation of certain associations that, even in case of the dissolution of the association, its property shall not be distributed among its members, but shall revert to some union for similar purposes. Self-maintenance is concerned in such case, not with the physical existence of the group, but with its idea, which is incarnated in the group that becomes its heir, the continuity of which is just as well provided for through