A SOCIOLOGICAL VIEIV OF SOVEREIGNTY 3
its ultimate aim." The psychology of the sociologist is histori- cal, rather than moral. Analysis with him, therefore, is neces- sarily based on evolution, and adheres to the lines of actual development which history shows to have occurred. This is the second standpoint in a sociological view of sovereignty. Development is differentiation. In primitive society, sovereignty and its institution, the state, were blended homogeneously with all the other psychic motives and social institutions. Sociology traces the gradual separation of institutions out from the mass, holding fast, however, to their persistent unity in the one social organism. Thus analysis and development are inseparable. In this way sociology lays foundations for political science based on sovereignty, as well as for other social sciences based each on its peculiar psychic principles. Society precedes the state just as it precedes the family, the church, the corporation, the politi- cal party. It also unites all of these as a tree unites its branches. Sociology must discover both the laws of development and the basis of union, as found in the nature of the institutions them- selves and in the psychology of the individual, who is, at one and the same time, a member of each. In the following chapters social institutions and their psychic bases are first analyzed, for the sake of definition, and then analysis and development arc carried side by side.
CHAPTER II.
INSTITUTIONS.
In all human societies individual caprice is bounded by defi- nite limits. These are the usages and laws which prescribe accepted modes of dealing with one another. In early society customs, usages, conventions, ceremonies, guide each person rigidly in his dealings with others. In advanced societies statu- tory law lays down certain general rules of conduct within which a large range of personal choices is opened, and reliance is placed on the right character and the personal beliefs and desires of the individual to hold him to tolerant treatment of his fellows. These definite and accepted modes of mutual dealing, handed down from generation to generation, and shaping each individual,
