THE NEW LEVIATHAN 381 



viathan is not dependent on any fixed, morphological, 

 or architectural contours; or on their location in any 

 particular time or place : but on the persistency of their 

 action, and on the continuity of their reciprocal func- 

 tions. The fractions of time and space which isolate, 

 and which give freedom and individuality to the labile 

 units of social life, are indeed far larger, and perhaps 

 more variable, than those which isolate the atoms of 

 a chemical molecule, or the constituent parts of an 

 ocean liner, or of a social institution, like a college, or 

 university; but this same separating matrix is present 

 in all these individualities, and so far as we may know, 

 it is everywhere of precisely the same nature, imma- 

 terial and indefinable. Neither formal aggregation, 

 nor contiguity of substance, is the basic attribute of 

 unity and individuality, whether physical, organic, or 

 social. True unity is always based on cooperative ac- 

 tion across time and space, in variable measure; or on 

 the mutual conveyance of directive influences from 

 part to part, in a common creative act. 



In this sense, then, the birth of humanity, of a great 

 coherent, immortal organism, is an accomplished fact. 

 In it are now securely embodied the unfailing prom- 

 ises of a vigorous youth. Although its utterances are 

 as yet incoherent and its acts uncoordinated, it is ani- 

 mated by common spiritual impulses and possessed of 

 the physical organs necessary to convey them to all its 

 constituents, and to utilize their powers in purposeful 

 action. 



Justly to appreciate the significance of this period 

 in evolution, to grasp the magnitude of current events, 

 or to estimate even approximately their tremendous 



