Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/376

 362 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

chemical elements. Let us suppose a case of a mixture containing five or more elements say chlorine, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine. The volumes of the elements are in various pro- portions. One of the elements is present in such small quanti- ties that it may be discoverable only after the last refinement of analysis. Yet when that obscure element is found, it is itself ; it exercises its own reaction ; it is not forced to abdicate its peculiarity; it is equal with each of the other elements in react- ing with each of its own essential properties at their actual value within the mixture. Hydrogen and oxygen have the same affinities when immersed in nitrogen as when they are undis- turbed by a third party. In a mixture of hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen with other elements, each retains its proportional force and its own peculiarities, subject only to the preponderat- ing force and quality of the other constituents of the mixture. Oxygen does not become nitrogen, though it may be lost in the volume of nitrogen. Hydrogen does not become chlorine, though in almost pure nitrogen it may be unable to join with enough oxygen to distinguish itself from chlorine in its relation to com- bustion. Such force and value as each element has, however, it retains in the mixture, and whenever the conditions of the mix- ture are such that the several elements are called to show them- selves, the known characteristics of all alike reappear. There is similar permanency of character, or similar retention of identity, even when that identity is concealed in the mass of other elepients. In the social reality we have discovered the like interest of all individuals in the means of satisfaction symbolized by the terms health, wealth, sociability, knowledge, beauty, Tightness. We do not find that persons have equal intensity of desire for these satisfactions, nor that the distribution of these desires is uniform, nor that they present to themselves the same specific objects or experiences as satisfactions of the desires. What we do find is that when any man or class of men arrives at the stage of development at which these desires, any or all, emerge, the individuality of the man or the class is like the individuality of every other man or class in demanding the object of desire as the satisfaction of want.