MASS-MAN AND UNIT-MAN

man abandons his trne Self be abandons also bis true relation to bis fèUows. Tbe mass-man mnst mie in eacb nnit-man, else tbe unit-man vnll drop ofiE and die.^

It must be borne in mind that Carpenter, hère, is indicating the gênerai tendency of private property ; other tendencies of course operate in the community, and counteract to some extent its logical influence. The land-owning class is not necessarily idle or selfish ; and the man who has a " private income " is not necessarily unproductive. Disposition has to be taken into account as well as Environment ; and, as Mr. Lester F. Ward (quoted by Mr. Graham Wallas in his The Great Society, p. 197) shows, "in modem times, a large proportion of the most important intellectual achîevements hâve been the byproduct of the institution of private property,'* and ' ' about a third of the European writers of acknowledged genius hâve sprung from the small class of the land-owning nobility."

This statement does not rebut Carpenter's main contention ; he is not concemed with the by-products, but with the direct product, of the institution of private property; there may be many men whose genius and whose wisdom so direct the use of that leisure and opportunity which imeamed income often provides, that such ownership is justified in their case in the highest sensé ; but on the other hand, a long list might be enumerated of evils which

^ Çivilizc^içn : its Cause qnd Cure, p. a^.

SSê FB06BESS AKD EYIL

in tfae social body, which afect hige aicas of tfae masses of men and women, and wlncfa beyond any déniai dérive ultimately hom tfae lact tliat private property is a centrad |aiuu|ile of dviiind social ofganization. It is a peqdesdog phenomencm— this apparently

De of evil with progress. It a su|acme demand iq>on human insight and self-possessian. It is so easy to despair as one rontrmplates disintegrating forces working tfaemsdv^es ont ; so easy to let the arm drop and to migird tfae kin in the piesence of a seemingly insoluble tan|^ ; so difficult to be tenadous of hopc. Cafanness and confidence — ^which mean cffidency— dqpend hère upon a broad view. It should be ckar that jnst as the breaching of the Garden ol Eden by the Serpent was necessary in Qfder that holy manhood might arise ont of animal innocence throu^ painful knowledge and practice ol good and evîl ; jnst as seU-consdousness, with an its delnsicms and oppositions, its wanderings and soff ering, must break in upon the undiff erentiated consdousness of animais in order that Man may arise, climb the steep ascent of heaven, and become at last even as the gods ; just as a complaisant, superficial, extemally-imposed habit of virtue must be disturbed and violated by lapses and rebeUions in order that that inner and only Virtue may be established, which is the " health of the soûl " ; just as a unity which is simple homogeneity must be subject to confusion if

FROM HOMOGENEITY TO OKDER 285

the higher unity which exists amid and through

clifierences is to be achieved ; so does CiviUzation

lie between Barbarism on the one hand and the

true Democracy on the other. The primitive

social unity must be decomposed that Society

may be recomposed in a higher unity. The

dominance of the Mass-man in each unit-man

which constitutes the health and order of the

early community, the gens, must be challenged

and temporarily overthrown by the reign of a

" false individuality " based upon possession and

conquest, in order that the consciousness of the

true individuality may arise and the Mass-man

be reinstated upon a stabler throne goveming an

enriched and far-extended kingdom.

This moment of divorce, then, this parenthesis in human progress, covers the ground of ail History ; and the whole of Civilization, and ail crime and disease, are only the materials of its immense purpose — themselves destined to pass away as they arose — but to leave their fruits etemal.^

It might be supposed that this breadth of view, this almost cosmic sweep of vision, which finds a necessary place for Evil in the wholeness of the race-movement, should lead naturally to lethargy and laissez-faire, the attitude of Little Bo-Peep who would " leave them alone and they^U come home." If Evil is necessary, if it is even valuable as a means to an end, why

* ÇmliMotion : H^ ǧus0 ond Cure, p. 25.

286 1IEANIN6 OF PR06RESS

should we trouble ovennuch about it, or strive against it?

This might be a possible attitude if we were mère spectators of the process; but we are also parts of the process — ^the thing is working itsetf out in and throi^h us. Just because progress is real, our antagonisms are real, and as inherently necessary as it is. The f ermenting, disintegrating influence is not an intrusion from without, but an upthrust from within. The Serpent did not come through the fence, but was hatched in the Garden. Progress

is a word which may be applied to any world-movement or individual career in the same sensé as it may be applied to the performance of a musical work, which progresses to its final chord, yet the conclusion of the whole is not in the final chord, but in that which runs benéath and inspires the entire web — ^in that which from first to last the whole complez succession of chords and phrases indicates.^

It issues, too, through discords as well as harmonies, through dissonance as well as through melody.

There are those who, feeling the current of world-movement about them, instinctively shut their eyes and hold the more tenaciously to their ground ; others, shaken from their mooriiig, go hither and thither in altemating enthusiasm and despair ; but some — and Carpenter is conspicuous among them — standing calm, balanced, self-