872 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 



together by spiritual threads stretching from person to person. In 

 the higher social formations, however, people do not cohere alto- 

 gether in this simple way. In the personal relationship the poles 

 of thought are myself and my idea of the other person. But in the 

 relation of compatriots, or fellow sectaries, or co-conspirators 

 there comes first the thought of the ideal, leader, dynasty, territory, 

 possession, organ, or symbol that serves as keystone locking the 

 social arch, and then the thought of the fellow member in the same 

 attitude to it that I am. Recognition of this identity of relation 

 establishes between us a bond of sympathy. The vitality and 

 strength of an active permanent group consists, then, not so much 

 in direct attachments among the members as in the attachment 

 of all to something which serves to mark off that body of persons 

 from the rest of the world. 



The subjective aspect of human groupings has of late years been 

 taken in hand by what is known as collective psychology, and some 

 really beautiful studies have been made of the crowd, the party, 

 the sect, the public, and the criminal band. They have already 

 done us the great service of showing that there is more than one 

 species of human association, and thereby refuting the pointless 

 antithesis of "individual, society; society, individual," the tire- 

 some iteration of which well-nigh discredited our young science. 

 These studies have, however, been random shots and show no co- 

 ordinating idea. Too often the investigator imagines the particular 

 grouping he analyzes is the pattern of all association. The first 

 duty, then, is to put an end to this attempt to unlock all doors 

 with one key, by classifying social groupings into genera and species. 

 Once they are thrown into classes and subclasses according to their 

 psychic characteristics, we shall know just how much ground there 

 is to cover. The next task is so to test and graduate them as to 

 reveal the principal degrees of socialization intervening between 

 the absolute individual and the completest group ego. The octave 

 of stages of collective individuality seems to be something like 

 this: 



(1) Those of a certain category, finding a greater mental agree- 

 ment with one another than with other persons, seek out, associate 

 with, and aid one another. Here a diffused sociality exists, but no 

 group ego. 



(2) They become conscious of their spiritual resemblances, and 

 so begin to think of themselves as a group apart. 



(3) In case their mental community extends to certain common 

 purposes, they spontaneously coordinate their like efforts for the 

 realization of these purposes. Such cooperation implies a higher 

 degree of sympathy and comprehension. 



(4) They spontaneously coordinate unlike efforts for the realiza- 



