VI.
The realm, then, to which man on the social side of himself is related, is larger than that encompassed by any national boundaries. The Greek, on the social side of himself, was larger than Achai, the Jew than Palestine, and the Roman than the Empire. The Greek developed thought, the Jew produced religion, and the Roman formulated law. But the larger side of man’s nature is not met by thought simply, or by religion simply, or by law simply, but by the combination of these in right proportions.
Man, on the social side of himself, is correlated through reciprocal relations to the human race. To limit the social expression of man’s life is to contract its nature, and to violate the moral laws in accordance with which it must act. The understanding cannot rest in unrelated phenomena. Through science it reduces the forces of nature to one force, its energies to one energy, and its matter to its constituent elements. So the social nature must find harmony in the union and cohesion of scattered, separated human beings. It must have companionship, such as the relations of all men help to make. It must have a range as wide as the world. Because of the continuities of life and thought secured through universal social cohesion, it must be able to pass and repass through the length and breadth of human life. If man’s social nature is to find its correlate, the race must be so completely one, so compact and contiguous in the spirit of fraternity and good will, as to make it possible for each man to share in the work, thought, and virtue of all men. Individuals must be gathered into the network of social relations, so that, instead of separate and isolated units, they shall be known as farmers, merchants, blacksmiths, mechanics, shoemakers, lawyers, doctors, editors, and ministers. The calling of each must relate to the well-being of all. Every man must make for others and receive in return for the supply of his own wants something of all the others make. Into the multiplex flow of exchanges the shoemaker may put in simply one pair of shoes per day, as his personal contribution. To that extent he must be able to make levies on the contributions of all the rest. No one will be independent in an unrelated sense. All will be dependent, and each independent, through dependence on the rest. The race, as civil society, will be at work under all climes, and on all soils, producing the infinite variety of goods for the world’s market. By the specialization and division of labor, we will have great increase of skill and the multiplication of all products. People will be at work raising coffee and drugs in Brazil, tea in China, creating a myriad of manufactures in England, France, and Germany, growing fruits on the Mediterranean Islands; these then will be gathered by various means of transportation and loaded on ships and cars, to be carried to every place on earth; that everyone may have the whole earth to serve him, while on his part he renders service to all.