PERSONALITY 135 



languages. These feelings may seem very petty 

 compared with the uncalculating loyalty of our 

 ancestors. But we must not hastily condemn 

 them. They certainly make for self -improve- 

 ment. And they probably will conduce to peace. 

 Those who love their country because it is of 

 advantage to them, are not so likely to shed their 

 blood for it as those who regard its welfare as an 

 object in itself. And if self -consciousness, by 

 increasing the influence of the individualistic 

 impulse of self-assertion, is weakening the social 

 impulses, and is, so far, loosening the bonds which 

 are the primordial mainstays of society, it is pro- 

 viding an antidote for this disintegration. By 

 accentuating the impulse of kindliness it is swell- 

 ing a force which will link mankind together as 

 effectively and upon a broader basis. 



The fruit of self-consciousness is the idea of 

 personality, the notion that we are not part and 

 parcel of the Nature around us, not merely 

 members of a family or tribe, but are individuals, 

 each with a sphere of his own. The genesis of this 

 idea does not appear to lie very far back in the 

 development of mankind. We can discover signs 

 of its growth during the period of recorded his- 

 tory. It is hard to enter into the mind of a savage. 

 But from the completeness with which in savage 

 life the interests of the individual are submerged 

 below those of the family, or the tribe, we may 

 infer that a man is hardly conceived as an inde- 

 pendent personality : he is of consideration only 

 as a member of a group : it is the group which 

 has an independent existence and is responsible 

 for the conduct of each of its members. A similar 

 idea also pervaded ancient law, which hardly 

 recognized any rights or responsibilities that were 



