SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS 279 



kindliness : selfishness may be blunted by kindli- 

 ness or sharpened by cruelty. 



Turning, in the first place, to the influence of the 

 social impulses in linking men together, we observe 

 that, like the maternal impulse, they are vague 

 and uninstructive until, focussed by propinquity, 

 they find their object in the persons whom we see 

 around us. We insensibly defer to our close com- 

 panions : friends may be more to us than relatives : 

 our charity is moved more strongly by sights than 

 by tales of distress. Men who have lived amongst 

 alien races and may criticize them severely will 

 defend them in case of need even against their 

 own kin. Anglo- Indian officials will champion 

 the cause of Indians against such belittlement as 

 is implied by the immigration policy of the South 

 African government. But the propinquity may 

 be ideal as well as actual : notions of it may be 

 evoked by conceptions that arise out of memories, 

 as well as by the impressions of our senses. The 

 idea that another is a blood relation predisposes 

 us towards him. So also do ideas of comradeship 

 in religion, in business, or in opinions. A Moham- 

 medan is drawn towards a Mohammedan, a sur- 

 geon towards a fellow-surgeon, a radical in politics 

 towards another radical. Ideas of closeness that 

 arise in this fashion have been of immense impor- 

 tance in human progress : they are, indeed, the 

 foundation upon which much of our social 

 structure rests. Sympathy that is born of sight 

 or touch may be stronger than can be generated 

 by ideas of fellowship. But obviously it can bind 

 only a small society ; and towns, countries, and 

 nations would lose all coherence were their 

 inhabitants not welded together by the wider 

 feelings which may be aroused by ideal concep- 

 tions of relationship. The history of the birth 

 of these conceptions whether religious, social, 



