MENTAL SYSTEMS 63
drawing near to one another and co-operating in social movements and many forms of ethical endeavour. The systems of theoretical meanings in religion have become impracticable as bases of extensive union ; and both within and between the separate communions the use meanings of practical life form the chief available bases of associated action on a large scale. In this we find the psychological explanation of both the integrating and disintegrating processes which have attracted so much attention in the religious world.
We find here also the explanation of the fact that men have a growing disinclinaton to enter into forms of asso ciation which are expected to be permanent. The per manent association of a large number of individuals implies a degree of permanent mental uniformity which in these days rarely exists, and so hinders the free development of the personality which is so precious a privilege of modern men. And yet this is not the manifestation of an anti social spirit. It is not difficult to secure the co-operation of large numbers for specific, proximate, practical ends. In fact, such temporary combinations were never so frequently formed or so numerous in the history of the world. But the ease with which co-operative combinations are formed is balanced by the ease with which they are dissolved as soon as the proximate ends for which they are organized are secured. It is an indication of the vast growth of the voluntary principle of association in modern society. There is no reason, therefore, either to hope for or to dread a permanent organic union of various religious groups upon either a theological or an institutional basis. Human asso ciation becomes, so to speak, more fluid with the passing generations ; and the organized co-operative relations of men more and more resemble, not the rigid strata of rock which give configuration to the solid earth, but the waves and bil lows of the changeful sea, forever forming only to be re formed in different shape. But there is this difference
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