Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/374

 360 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

being made in the progress toward monarchy, described above, there is, properly speaking, no state consciousness. The mon- arch is simply a private proprietor on a larger and more authori- tative scale than others, and all property, such as it is, whether held by monarch or by subject, is private property. When, how- ever, this movement is completed in absolutism, those whose private coercion has been appropriated by the king through his sheriffs, judges, and other subordinates, and who find themselves reduced to the level, of their own subordinates, now begin to be drawn together in common interest against the pretensions of the king. That which draws them together is, in the first place, the possession of similar property rights or coercive privileges, upon which the king has encroached. The consciousness which animates them is a class consciousness. This is only a name for their recognition of common interests in the face of a common obstacle, and their capacity to cooperate for overcoming this obstacle. It is more than that habitual, instinctive conscious- ness which in primitive times blindly leads to cooperation under the personal and divine prestige of a chief. It is an outcome of reflective self-consciousness. It depends, first, on an assured means of subsistence, and the accompanying leisure for con- templation and combination. With this there must also exist certain psychic qualities, such as self-control, self-sacrifice, intel- lectual capacity, hopefulness, energy, integrity. These are essential factors in mutual confidence. Without them enduring combination is impossible. It is a striking fact, already noted, that these psychic qualities did not exist among the nobility of Asiatic monarchies, and consequently they were able to make no permanent resistance to the power of the despot. In other words, they were unable to combine and to secure through their constituted spokesmen a share in determining the sovereign will. But in England the nobility, aided by the smaller proprietors, possessed these qualities in sufficient degree to constitute the House of Lords, and later the House of Commons, as partners with the kings in sovereignty. " State consciousness " is thus originally class consciousness, organized at first in voluntary, private, and unofficial ways. This organization, by concentrating