286 SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES 



and carried on by individuals ; and I am not sure that 

 \there would be more "cakes and ale" to distribute. But 

 las society progresses the accent that is placed on the two 

 aspects of private property will be changed. It will fall 

 not so much on " Thine is mine" as on "Mine is also 

 thine." Progress comes not by destroying the relations 

 between men in society, merging either them or their pos- 

 sessions in a common mass, but by moralizing them. The 

 individuality of man must be kept sacred and intact as 

 the centre of rights, and even the possessions of others 

 must share its sacredness. For T as the individual apart^ 

 fromsociety is nothing but an empty name, so is society 



apart from the individual. And in what remains of this 

 lecture I shall dwell upon this truth. It is too much 

 forgotten by us all, Individualists and Socialists alike. 



The very magnitude of the modern city, and especially 

 of the modern state, obscures this truth from our view. 

 "In small, isolated, rudimentary societies, like the civic 

 States of Athens or Sparta, the dependence of the State 

 upon the individual's personal worth and active patriotism 

 was obvious. The Athenian State was a little community 

 surrounded by rivals, and at any moment the courage of 

 its citizens might be required to defend it against its 

 enemies. Their temperance, justice, wisdom, and all the 

 virtues of peace were in constant demand to resist the 

 forces within that made for its disintegration. The State 

 was frail asjwell as small, and it was easily overturned; 

 for it was the first experiment of mankind in associating 

 wills that are free which is the essence of a state. 



But now all is changed. It is rarely, indeed, that the 

 cry of a modern State^Jn peril for its existence, startles 

 its citizens^ In this country, not even in times of war> 



