" In our mental disease we need
the same course of treatment. Let us read fewer books and papers and
think more about what we do read.
Society may foster original thinking; it is none the less opposed to
it.
"Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous."
This is the motto of all great parties in Church and State. Still
social life has undoubtedly fostered thought. We think vastly more
and better than primitive man; still we have much to learn. Society
puts the experience of centuries at the service of every individual.
Poor and unsatisfactory as are our modes of education, they are a
great blessing intellectually and will become more helpful.
And, after all, the friction of mind against mind in social
life--provided social intercourse is this, and not the commingling
of two vacua--is a continual education of inestimable advantage. And
all these advantages would without language have been absolutely
impossible. Intellectually our debt to society is inestimable.
And how does social life aid man morally? I cannot help believing
that primitive society was the first school of the human conscience.
It was a rude school, but it taught man some grand lessons.
The primitive clan would seem to have existed as a rude army for
the defence of its members and for offensive operations against
enemies.
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