MAN DEPENDS ON SOCIETY 279 



Is there, then, any means of paying back obligations 

 which areso vast, and so obvious? There are many, I 

 would answer^ and they have this unique characteristic 

 tHat in payingthem back man enriches himself. The first, 

 the greatest service he can render his city and State, is that 

 of fulfilling the duties of the station in life in which he 

 is placed. For social life is articulated through and through 

 into limited spheres of activity, more or less suitable to 

 the powers of its particular organs. No public activity 

 will make up for the neglect of these more private duties. 

 But in performing these honestly and well the individual 



is also serving the State. In an ideal condition of society, 

 I am sometimes tempted to believe, no other service can 

 be required of a man except that which his peculiar station, 

 his profession, trade, or craft may bring. But we are far, 

 very far, from that ideal state when everyone, being vir- 

 tuous and wise, bears his own share of the burden of the 



general good which, by the bye, is not only a burden but 



a privilege. In the meantime, the man who either by his 

 wisdom or his riches, by his happy temperament, his 

 virtuous will, his ready sympathy, his wide intellectual 

 outlook, his social status, or by any other form of wealth 

 within him or without, is endowed beyond his neighbours, 

 is called upon to undertake many a task outside his nar- 

 rower sphere. I do not deny that even if he confines 

 himself within his immediate personal or family concerns, 

 and wraps himself up in his more private virtues his value 

 to the community is great. But by doing so he will 



deprive himself of the opportunities of a larger growth ! 

 for the wideatrnosphere of the city and of the state is to 



thatj)f_the family as the -open air is to a closed room 

 cplderjmd less kindly and sometimes rude, but also bracing. 



