ABSTRACT
Permanence without establishment is not enough. It is, for instance, inappropriate to speak of poverty (or" the poor") as an institution, for though the poor are with us always their poverty is not deliberately established by society. Poverty is an institution in a monastic order or among yogis, and it sounds cold-blooded to talk of povcrty as an institution of the wider community simply because it implies a similar establishment. Again, the very fact of recognition and establishment implies a certain permanence. What then is it that is thus permanent, thus established 1 It is not, we must see, any mere object standing in outer nature. The land on which we live, most permanent and first recognised of all external things, is not an institution. On the other hand the mode of its cultivation, of its possession, and of its inheritance, say the run-rig system, communism, entail, mortmain, primogeniture, are clearly institutions. These are, or were, permanent forms of relation between men in respect of the land, forms recognised by communities or associations. It appears then that institutions are forms of order established within social life by some common will. '.rhe qualifying phrase, "established by some common will," enables us t·o distinguish these from customs, which are also permanent ways in which men relate themselves to one another. It may be only a question of degree, but institution implies a more definite recognition, a more determinate will. Customs are but the habits of community. As one man falls imperceptibly into a habit so do many men, the member:,; of a group, form imperceptibly common habits, that is, customs. These customs may come to be recognised and instituted, they may come to be honoured, or perhaps to be condemned as a burden and restriction--or they may be as little felt by those who share them, as little known to them, as is the weight of the atmosphere. Our whole
The qualifying phrase, "established by some common will," also enables us to determine the relation of assQciation and institution. An association is a body of social beings as organised for the pursuit of some oommon interest or interests. It stands in oontrast to oommunity, the oommon life of social beings. Community is any area of common Jife; an association is a definite organisation pursuing some speoifio interest or pursuing general interests in some speoifc way. The distinotion of association from institution should now be obvious. For institutions are forms, established forms of relation between sooial beings in respeot either simply of one another (as in the institution of rank) or of some external object (as in the institution of property). An association is more than a form, it is the creator as well as the created, it is a souroe of institutions. An association has a subjeotive as well as an objeotive aspect, it too is created by common will, but it oonsists in wills as organised in respeot of some oommon interest. An institution has an objective aspect alone, it is a means alone. The assooiation may modify its institutions, may dissolve some and create others, as the State for instance is constantly doing. So the association outlives its institutions. Therefore if we are to be striot in our thinking, we should
A difficulty in tho observance of this distinction arises from the fact that some terms stand both for the association and for the institution through which it works, i.e. either the principal institution or the complete set of institutions belonging to the association. Thi~ is the case with the term " church," and still more clearly with suoh terms as "hospital" and" university." Take for instance the term "hospital." It stands for a definite system, through which medical and nursing skill is applied to suffering or disease. It may stand also for an association of doctors and nurses who supply that need. This association, we must note, is not equivalent to th(! institution, for the institution is a form or system constituted by the relation of the members of the association to those who require its aid. It is this relation that is instituted, it is this form of activity, this means of supplying need, which is the institution.
