THE PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE 835 



its purely rational structure, whether it may exist anywhere as 

 yet or not. Hobbesianism is the most elaborate and most con- 

 sistent system of the doctrine commonly known as that of "natural 

 law" (Naturrecht), including, as it always did, a theory of the state. 

 As a matter of fact, this doctrine has been abandoned almost 

 entirely, especially in Germany, where it had been exerting a very 

 considerable influence in the century which preceded the French 

 Revolution, when even kings and absolutist statesmen were among 

 its open adherents. It has been controverted and abandoned ever 

 since the first quarter of the nineteenth century a fact which 

 stands in manifest connection with the great reaction and restora- 

 tion in the political field following the storms of that revolution 

 and of Bonapartist rule in Europe. There is hardly a liberal 

 school left now which dares openly profess that much derided 

 theory of a "social compact." This, I believe, is somewhat dif- 

 ferent in the United States. As far as my knowledge goes, this 

 theory that is to say, an individualistic construction of society 

 and of the state is still the ordinary method employed in this 

 country for a deduction of the normal relations between state or 

 society, on the one hand, and individuals, on the other; for, as 

 needs no emphasizing, it is not the opinion of an original contract 

 in the historical sense that is to be held in any way as a substan- 

 tial element of the theory. And yet the obvious criticism of that 

 pseudo-element has been the most powerful argument against 

 the whole theory, which consequently has seldom met with an 

 intelligent and just appreciation in these latter days. And it is 

 in opposition to it that, apart from a revival of theological in- 

 terpretations, the recent doctrine of society or state as an organ- 

 ism has become so popular for a time. This doctrine, of course, 

 was an old one. Not to speak of the ancients, in the so-called Mid- 

 dle Ages, it had preceded the contract theory as it has supple- 

 mented it in more modern times. It was, indeed, coupled with 

 the theological conceptions and religious ideals so universally 

 accepted in those days, although it was not dependent upon them. 

 The doctrine of St. Thomas and of Dante, however, includes a 

 theory of the universal state; that is to say, of the empire, not 

 a theory of society, of which the conception had not yet been 

 formed, as we may safely say that a consciousness of it did not 

 exist. This traditional organicism applied as well to the church, 

 the mystic body of which Christ was the supposed head has 

 been transferred of late to "society," after it had regained fresh 

 authority as a political doctrine. However, the conception of a 

 "society," as distinguished from political or religious bodies, is 

 much more vague and indefinite. Either it is to be taken in the 



