Meaning of Primary Groups—Family, Playground, and Neighborhood—How Far Influenced by Larger Society—Meaning and Permanence of “Human Nature”—Primary Groups the Nursery of Human Nature 23 CHAPTER IV PRIMARY IDEALS Nature of Primary Idealism—The Ideal of a “We” or Moral Unity—It Does Not Exclude Self-Assertion—Ideals Springing from Hostility—Loyalty, Truth, Service—Kindness—Lawfulness—Freedom— The Doctrine of Natural Right—Bearing of Primary Idealism upon Education and Philanthropy 32 CHAPTER V THE EXTENSION OF PRIMARY IDEALS Primary Ideals Underlie Democracy and Christianity—Why They Are Not Achieved on a Larger Scale—What They Require from Personality—From Social Mechanism—The Principle of Compensation 51 PART II—COMMUNICATION CHAPTER VI THE SIGNIFICANCE OF COMMUNICATION Meaning of Communication—Its Relation to Human Nature—To Society at Large 61 CHAPTER VII THE GROWTH OF COMMUNICATION Pre-Verbal Communication—The Rise of Speech—Its Mental and Social Function—The Function of Writing—Printing and the Modern World—The Non-Verbal Arts 66 CHAPTER VIII MODERN COMMUNICATION: ENLARGEMENT AND ANIMATION Character of Recent Changes—Their General Effect—The Change in the United States—Organized Gossip—Public Opinion, Democracy, Internationalism—The Value of Diffusion—Enlargement of Feeling—Conclusion 80 CHAPTER IX MODERN COMMUNICATION: INDIVIDUALITY The Question—Why Communication Should Foster Individuality—The Contrary or Dead-Level Theory—Reconciliation of These Views—The Outlook as Regards Individuality 91 CHAPTER X MODERN COMMUNICATION: SUPERFICIALITY AND STRAIN Stimulating Effect of Modern Life—Superficiality—Strain—Pathological Effects 98 PART III—THE DEMOCRATIC MIND CHAPTER XI THE ENLARGEMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS Narrowness of Consciousness in Tribal Society—Importance of Face-to-Face Assembly—Individuality—Subconscious Character of Wider Relations—Enlargement of Consciousness—Irregularity in Growth—Breadth of Modern Consciousness—Democracy 107 CHAPTER XII THE THEORY OF PUBLIC OPINION Public Opinion as Organization—Agreement Not Essential—Public Opinion versus Popular Impression—Public Thought Not an Average—A Group Is Capable of Expression through Its Most Competent Members—General and Special Public Opinion—The Sphere of the Former—Of the Latter—The Two Are United in Personality—How Public Opinion Rules—Effective Rule Based on Moral Unity 121 CHAPTER XIII WHAT THE MASSES CONTRIBUTE