Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/58

 46 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

sharing in certain moods, which can develop their concentration and timid tenderness only with undisturbed glance from eye to eye. It may also be observed how extraordinarily rare and dif- ficult it is for three people, even in the case of a visit to a museum or in the presence of a landscape, to come into a really united state of feeling, which, however, may occur with relative ease between two. A and B may emphasize the n which they have in common and may feel it undisturbed, because the v which A does not share with B and the which B does not share with A are felt immediately as an individual reserve, and as located in another story of one's being. If, however, a C joins the com- pany, who shares the v with A and the with B, the result is that even under this scheme, which is still favorable to the unity of the whole, the unification of feeling is in principle arrested. While two may actually be one party, or may stand quite beyond the party question, it is usual in precisely such finely tuned combinations for three to constitute at the same time three parties, and consequently to terminate the unified relation of each to every other. The sociological structure of the combi- nation in twos is consequently distinguished by the fact that both phenomena are lacking: both the strengthened attachment through a third, or, it may be, through a social frame reaching out over both, and also the interruption and distraction of pure and immediate reciprocation. But in many cases this lack makes the relationship more intensive and strong, for in the feeling of being thrown exclusively upon each other, and of having no hope of recourse to cohesive forces which do not spring from immediate reciprocity, many otherwise undeveloped energies, which have their source in remoter psychical reservoirs, will become vital in the community, and many disturbances and threatenings into which there might be betrayal, under confi- dence in the third party and in a totality, are carefully avoided. This intimacy, to which the circumstances existing between two people incline them, furnishes the reason why precisely these constitute the chief seat of jealousy.

PROFESSOR DR. GEORG SIMMEL. UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN.

[ To be continued^