Solitude and Company 



PERMISSION to see with your own 

 eyes and think your own thoughts is 

 what you get by being alone. To stop and 

 start when you like is something, too. In 

 company there is often a tendency to over- 

 do, the impact of a motion enduring longer 

 in a crowd than in the individual. In regi- 

 ments of our citizen soldiery one seldom 

 hears of a man dropping out on a march of 

 a dozen miles, though burdened with rifle 

 and accoutrements, and so unused to exer- 

 cise that a six-mile walk at other times 

 would be a feat. This organization, multi- 

 tude, and unity are a gain, so far as material 

 force is concerned, and although in one 

 sense a crowd is only as strong as its weakest 

 member, as a chain is as strong as its 

 weakest link, in another sense the less 

 effective is buoyed up and beyond himself 

 by the contagion of power. Combination, 



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