[100] Leaves of Grass (1884), page 9.
[101] Idem, 59.
[102] Idem, 48.
[103] Idem, 48.
[104] Idem, 110.
[105] Arthur H. Smith, Chinese Characteristics, 181.
PART IV
SOCIAL CLASSES
CHAPTER XVIII
THE HEREDITARY OR CASTE PRINCIPLE
Nature and Use of Classes—Inheritance and Competition the Two Principles upon which Classes are Based—Conditions in Human Nature Making for Hereditary Classes—Caste Spirit.
Speaking roughly, we may call any persistent social group, other than the family, existing within a larger group, a class. And every society, except possibly the most primitive, is more or less distinctly composed of classes. Even in savage tribes there are, besides families and clans, almost always other associations: of warriors, of magicians and so on; and these continue throughout all phases of development until we reach the intricate group structure of our own time. Individuals never achieve their life in separation, but always in coöperation with a group of other minds, and in proportion as these coöperating groups stand out from one another with some distinctness they constitute social classes.