ABSTRACT
Since absolute liberty is the primary claim of life, cooperation can never be pervasive. We must presuppose pure spontaneity in the persons that cooperate; otherwise there would be no genuine interests to reconcile, no sacrifices to impose, and no possible happiness to secure. On the other hand, beyond the range of cooperation we must leave a margin, if only as a safety valve, for the waywardness of individuals. It is one of the anomalies of the English mind that while in moral sentiment it makes this margin very narrow, especially among strict liberals, in political theory it leaves it immense; for in the doctrine of liberalism, which is an English product, only the province of the police (that is, safety of person and property) stands subject to control and imposes a duty to collaborate; while in everything intellectual or ideal each man should bravely paddle his own canoe.
