Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/828

814 friendship which implies freedom and choice. The new forms of spontaneous association, as they imply a preference of some over others, do not embrace all those of a given place, or who have dealings one with another. Consequently they do not foster that community spirit which is the natural support of restraints and duties. We dare not establish obligation upon one of these special feelings ; for the circle of obligation must be as wide as the circle of contacts, else order fails and the community perishes of partisanship or class feeling or religious hatreds.

It is not to be denied that sympathy has gained in range and that there is now a civic, national, or racial community binding men into groups much larger than the Semitic "tribe," the Greek "city," the Teutonic "kindred," the mediaeval "town, "or the New World "settlement." But these new communities are not tissues formed of the interlacing tendrils of individual lives. They are born of effort and maintained by the use of appropriate means. Civic pride and public spirit are often hothouse plants, and we see patriotism, the specific bond of the national community, openly fostered by art, ceremony, ideal, and symbol. We must face the fact, therefore, that the community, undermined by the stream of change, has caved in carrying with it part of the foundations of order. While not overlooking that growth of intelligence which, by enabling us to comprehend large bodies of people at a distance, invites fellowship to overleap the limits of personal contact, I am bound to say that we are relying on artificial rather than natural supports to bear the increasing weight of our social order, and that a return to a natural basis of social partnership seems about as unlikely as a return to natural food or natural locomotion.

The reader may shudder at the thought of modern society precariously rearing its huge bulk above the devouring waves of selfishness like a Venice built on piles. But it is perhaps no worse than man's depending on cultivated instead of wild fruits, or removing the seats of his civilization to climates where only artificial heat can keep alive through the winter. So long as