A MILLION MEN when
they are associated acquire no new powers or faculties. They only attain better conditions for using those which they al
ready possess. They increase the quantity and the
freedom of their powers, but do not change the kind. One man has not sufficient power to build a railway, a steamship or a temple. Unite a million men and the difficulty vanishes.
The units of society are persons. And whatever powers or rights society may possess, it must derive these from the nature of its component units. The laws of social order, of social action, are therefore in . the nature of man. In every act of life man is either acting in harmony with some law of his nature or else he is acting contrary to some inherent law of his being.
Long ages passed before man could rise to a conception of this truth and of its application to public affairs or collective life. The old Romans thought it perfectly right for the rulers to invent or enact laws which pleased or favored themselves. It was the business of the people to submit and not complain.
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