Social Environment 



broadcloth, or a nobleman in homespun. Here 

 especially environment Is almost altogether a 

 matter of relations, the product of choice and 

 selection. When a man chooses or accepts his 

 friends or heroes, he Is framing the largest 

 part of his social environment, whatever be his 

 state or city, the form of government under 

 which he lives, or the rank or station which he 

 adorns or disgraces. Improvement in these 

 latter respects may Increase opportunity or re- 

 move hindrances or obstacles. But the char- 

 acter of his environment, wx repeat, depends 

 ultimately on the choice or selection of the 

 Individual. 



We are led to consider society as a bundle of 

 possibilities of good and evil, of which one will 

 realize the best, another the worst. It Is like 

 a mass of the most varied building materials — 

 one builds a royal palace, another a hovel and 

 lives squalid and vulgar all his days. 



Yet here again as elsewhere some of our 

 surroundings press closely upon us. It is almost 

 Impossible to prevent them from becoming a 

 large part of our environment, especially during 

 our earlier years when we are most easily im- 

 pressed. Others invite and allure us repeatedly 



191 



