part and member of a comprehensive whole does not comport with the part they are trying to play as egoistic wholes. I shall return presently to the principles involved in this tragic relation, which recurs within all large societies. At this point I merely observe how prominently it impresses itself in the case of the “dead hand.” While, as above indicated, it is of extreme importance for the status of a close corporation that it has its own territorial foundation as firm basis of its unity, and as means of delimitation, it is also highly critical if a portion of such society demands the same for itself. The conflict of interest thus arising between the part and the whole appeared immediately in the fact that the “dead hand,” as a rule, demanded and obtained exemption from taxation. Indirectly, but still more significantly, the antithesis appeared in the injury to national industry from withdrawal of such properties from the stream of commerce. The firmness of social structure that comes from indestructibility and inalienability of property works as a thorn in the flesh so soon as it comes to be an attribute of a distinct portion of a large group. In that case the state of things which promotes the persistence of the fractional group is, from the standpoint of the larger containing group, directly antagonistic, because it leads to the benumbing and finally the excision of an organic member.
From the long history of the “dead hand” I will here only remark further that as early as 1391 its disadvantages led to a law in England which simply prohibited the acquisition of real estate by such perpetual corporations as guilds and fraternities. From the same point of view, opposition is made in modern times to the patents of the nobility, which pursue the corresponding purpose of creating an objective organ of the unity and stability of the family, an instrument which shall not be affected by the fortunes of individual members of the family. In this case, also, a certain inalienable and indivisible possession is calculated to be not merely the economic basis upon which the continuity of the family is maintained under all circumstances. It affords, at the same time, a rallying point of family coher-
