Page:Aspects of the Social Problem (1895).djvu/31



us recall to begin with the conceptions suggested in the previous Lecture.

We examined, in the first place, the pure or simple case of citizenship, as it presented itself in the typical communities of ancient Greece. Here we observed that the path was plain, the interconnection of lives was obvious, the oneness of purpose and of spirit throughout the society of freemen was unmistakable. No subordinate “bodies,” “interests,” or “worlds,” so strong as to be practically isolated, barred off the individual from the state. What for us is hard to discover, and perhaps impossible always to remember — the relation of our lives to a common good — was for him, in one form or another, impossible to forget.

In the second place, we cast a glance at the wilderness of “interests” which constitutes the intricate texture of modern society. We noted the difficulty of finding any clue to a unity between our surroundings, in which we are imprisoned from birth, and the life and well-being of our fellow-countrymen as a whole. “What is he?” we ask about any of our neighbours, wishing to ascertain the relation between his aims or interests and our own. The answer may be given by naming his rank, his industry, his profession, or, again, by naming any one of a hundred social, political, or religious movements, with which he has identi-