ABSTRACT
But when associations within community differentiate and when society reveals itself as no longer one enclosing circle but a graded series of communities, a problem of great significance arises. As associations multiply, each acquire>! its own distinctive customs and traditions, its own distinctive morality, in respect of the life-conditions with which it is especially concel'l1ed. Thus each acquire8 its average or characteristic form of honour, a8, for in8tanf1e, the honour of the soldier, of the lawyer, of the tradesman, of the doctor, down even to the honour among thieves. A man, as a rule, follows a single profession, and therefore the difference of standard between these
may involve no direct conflict of ideals; but every man belongs also to various associations, family, club, church, economic associations, and so forth, the variety and uncertainty of whose standards, unless he finds a principle of harmony, may well bring confusion into his life. Again, as the life of men becomes involved in nearer and farther circles of community, it becomes more and more difficult to find any general or communal traditions such as can comprehend all their activities. The differentiation of community, we have seen, stimulates both the sociality and the individuality of men. We now see that it raises perhaps the ultimate practical question in life, that of the unity of life for each individual as an active member of society. As community differentiates and individuality grows, men lose the security, the comfort of conformity, and are driven to seek, through perils and negations, a profounder source of unity. This is a necessary episode in all transition from tutelage to manhood. The social being who formerly accepted a principle of unity has henceforth to attain it.
