Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/179

 NUMBER AS DETERMINING FORM OF GROUP 1 67

ens the attachment of the two, as for example, when the birth of a child increases the love of the parents for each other, or, at least, that of the man for the wife, or the relation of each one of the two to the third produces a new and indirect attachment between them, as the common cares of parents for a child uni- versally signify a bond which must always lead beyond this child, and does not consist of sympathies which could spare this intermediate station. This coming into existence of essential socialization out of three elements, while the two elements of themselves offer resistance to socialization, is the reason why many essentially disharmonious married pairs wish for no chil- dren. It is the instinct that therewith a circle would be closed, within which they would be bound closer together and that not externally alone, but also in the profounder psychic strata than they are inclined to be. It is by no means a contradic- tory case if sometimes very intimate and passionate unions prefer to be childless. In such instances the immediate attach- ment is so strong that if a third element were to enter the circle, even though it is indirectly an element of cohesion, it would stimulate consciousness not so much of the attachment, which already exists in its highest degree, but rather of the indirect- ness of the relation through the third factor, which would thus operate relatively as an interruption. We must not overlook the fact, which is of the highest importance for all human attach- ment, that every mediation inserts itself between the elements which are to be combined, and thus separates in the very act of uniting them. When mediation is no longer necessary, this factor of interposition and separation, latent in every mediation, is accentuated : where mediation is superfluous, it is for that very reason worse than superfluous, and becomes quite as obnoxious as where its unifying function as such is not desired. Another variation of mediation occurs when the third ele- ment functions as a nonpartisan. In that case the mediator will either secure a consensus of the other two colliding ele- ments, in which instance the mediator seeks to eliminate himself, and only to bring to pass that the two disunited or ununited parties may unite directly; or he acts as arbitrator and