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 ASSEMBLIES 245

by the inter-stimulation of their common instincts and the simultaneous suppression or suspension of their unlike in tellectual systems that men are fused into a psychic mass.

If we should ask whether it is more important to stress the common elements in our human nature, to develop in men the consciousness of their community of life ; or to emphasize their divergent variations, to make them sensible of their distinctive individualities, the true answer would be that both should be done in about equal proportions. We are living under conditions which promote a very high differentiation of men, and which at the same time bring the population together in increasingly vast and dense com munities and favour and facilitate the assembling of men in ever larger masses. A notable phenomenon of urban life everywhere is the building of mammoth auditoriums for the gathering of people in great numbers ; and there is a tend ency to the enlargement of lecture halls, theatres and churches. These frequent large aggregations of people, in which, as we shall see, collective suggestion is greater and the units are more readily fused than in smaller ones, con stitute one of the most effective means of developing and strengthening the consciousness of the unity of men in an age of high specialization of individuals and groups ; if only the process of psychic fusion can be kept from going to the excess which effaces the sense of individual responsibility, disintegrates and weakens personality, and results in hurtful collective action.

The first stage of mental unity of the assembly is best suited to instruction. The class in the lecture room has this degree of unity. A certain measure of common feeling is desirable as a means of intellectual quickening, but the development of the feeling beyond a low intensity should be avoided. Wherever the didactic purpose is the con trolling one in bringing people together, care should be taken to keep the assembly in the primary stage of fusion. When the purpose is inspiration rather than instruction, aiming not at the impartation of ideas or their correlation,

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