political society with a certain distaste, as a necessary evil, an
irritating but inevitable restriction upon the "natural" sovereignty and
entire self-government of the individual. That was the dream of the
egotist. It was a theory in which men were seen to strut in the proud
consciousness of their several and "absolute" capacities. It would be as
instructive as it would be difficult to count the errors it has bred in
political thinking. As a matter of fact, men have never dreamed of
wishing to do without the "trammels" of organized society, for the very
good reason that those trammels are in reality but no trammels at all,
but indispensable aids and spurs to the attainment of the highest and
most enjoyable things man is capable of. Political society, the life of
men in states, is an abiding natural relationship. It is neither a mere
convenience nor a mere necessity. It is not a mere voluntary
association, not a mere corporation. It is nothing deliberate or
artificial, devised for a special purpose. It is in real truth the
eternal and natural expression and embodiment of a form of life higher
than that of the individual--that common life of mutual helpfulness,
stimulation, and contest which gives leave and opportunity to the
individual life, makes it possible, makes it full and complete.

It is in such a scene that man looks about to discover his own place and
force. In the midst of men organized, infinitely cross-related, bound by
ties of interest, hope, affection, subject to authorities, to opinion,
to passion, to visions and desires which no man can reckon, he casts
eagerly about to find where he may enter in with the rest and be a man
among his fellows. In making his place he finds, if he seek
intelligently and with eyes that see, more than ease of spirit and scope
for his mind. He finds himself--as if mists had cleared away about him
and he knew at last his neighborhood among men and tasks.