These things, then, imply a common consciousness. This consciousness is a recognition and ratification of existing interrelationships, and such a community of thought and feeling and will is fundamentally important in the unity of a nation. “No mere interaction will constitute a social relation. Nor yet an interaction of otherwise self-conscious agents. Not merely must each agent know himself, he must know the others.... Unless there be on both sides a perfect consciousness of self and of other, and of the relations of self and other--in a word, perfect mutual understanding--there will be, so far, no completely social relation. _A social relation is a self-conscious relation.... In other words, society is constituted by mutual understanding_.”[178] This understanding is that which enables the group to act as one. “Through this mutual knowledge the group, like the individual, is enabled to assert itself as an independent force.”[179] Mazzini understood that the unity of a country rested upon a sense of oneness in the minds of the people: “Country is not a mere zone of territory. The true country is the Idea to which it gives birth; it is the thought of love, the sense of communion which unites in one all the sons of that territory.”[180] Here we get a suggestion regarding the unity of Switzerland. It is, in large part, a unity in idea. That is not saying that it has no objective basis. The Swiss have a common land and other bonds of oneness. But the strongest bond seems to be that of a conception of common welfare. The unity of Switzerland has, of course, been stimulated from without. One of the most potent reasons for Swiss unity is that of necessity for defence. They must be one to preserve their freedom. But the fact is that whatever the stimulus was, whatever the difficulties that stood in the way, however diverse the original materials may have been, the Swiss are now one in the beliefs of the individual members of the nation, and that feeling of communion is actually unity in fact. It is true, then, that in one way the essence of an institution is in idea. “Perhaps the Identical, in this matter of groups, is neither a real person nor a nominalist fiction. Let us call it an idea....”[181] All true unity is really contributed by the mind. The external falls apart, and becomes a mere congeries and not a unity when not held together in idea. The external elements form the materials for a unity; they make up the basis of an institution; they aid in giving rise to a common consciousness; but it is the common consciousness itself that is the essence of the unity. In this way the will to individuality as an inner fact will in turn make for individuality in objective reality. Only, it should be noted on the other hand, when the unity is based on external grounds, it is not a mere fiction, and is not left up in the air.