250 HEREDITY AND SELECTION IN SOCIOLOGY 



into play — social organs in the fullest sense of tlie word, capable 

 of enveloping the individual life and influencing the individual 

 conscience in a manner in which the State could never hope to 

 affect them. These organs are capable of knitting the individual 

 molecules of society into a compact and united whole ; capable 

 of inspiring each individual with the consciousness of his duties 

 towards the society of which he is a unit ; capable, by holding 

 out to the individual an ideal powerful enough to rule the indi- 

 vidual's conduct, and yet never completely realisable, of giving 

 greater value to life ; capable, above all, of checking individual 

 desires, and thus efEectually putting an end to that dangerous 

 condition of moral instability known as insatiability. The ex- 

 tension of the influence of such organs must be sincerely de- 

 sired by all. But the tendency of the State to transform itself 

 into the sole organ of social control, to undertake the perform- 

 ance of functions of a moral nature for which it is utterly 

 incompetent, seriously endangers the continued existence of 

 these other indispensable organs of society. Their absorp- 

 tion by the State would be a double disaster, in that, while 

 such an absorption would destroy an essential principle of 

 social integration, it would likewise render the State less fit to 

 discharge those primary duties for the fulfilment of which it 

 exists. 



The increase in the suicide-rate of Europe being due to the 

 amoralism which characterises social life, and this amoralism 

 being but the result of an excessive individualism, it is necessary 

 that we should seek to re-establish a principle which, while it 

 ensures the liberty necessary for the evolution and expansion 

 of the personality of each individual, nevertheless subordinates 

 the judgment of the individual conscience to the judgment of 

 society. It is not blind obedience which we would recommend, 

 and, indeed, the time for blind obedience has passed ; the first 

 task of every essentially social principle must be to convince 

 the individual of his solidarity with the society of which he is 



