I do not propose to inquire how far the effects of strain may be seen in an increase of certain distinctly pathological phenomena, such as neurasthenia, the use of drugs, insanity and suicide. That it has an important working in this way—difficult, however, to separate from that of other factors—is generally conceded. In the growth of suicide we seem to have a statistical demonstration of the destructive effect of social stress at its worst; and of general paralysis, which is rapidly increasing and has been called the disease of the century, we are told that “it is the disease of excess, of vice, of overwork, of prolonged worry; it is especially the disease of great urban centres, and its existence usually seems to show that the organism has entered upon a competitive race for which it is not fully equipped.” FOOTNOTES: [39] Democracy in America, vol. ii, book iii, chap. 15. [40] Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties, ii, 579-588. [41] J. R. Lowell, The Cathedral. [42] Democracy in America, vol. ii, book ii, chap. 13. [43] Since published in a book having this title. [44] The Atlantic Monthly, April, 1904. _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. In a life like that of the Teutonic tribes before they took on Roman civilization, the social medium was small, limited for most purposes to the family, clan or village group. Within this narrow circle there was a vivid interchange of thought and feeling, a sphere of moral unity, of sympathy, loyalty, honor and congenial intercourse. Here precious traditions were cherished, and here also was the field for an active public opinion, for suggestion and discussion, for leading and following, for conformity and dissent. “In this kindly soil of the family,” says Professor Gummere in his Germanic Origins, “flourished such growth of sentiment as that rough life brought forth. Peace, good-will, the sense of honor, loyalty to friend and kinsman, brotherly affection, all were plants that found in the Germanic home that congenial warmth they needed for their earliest stages of growth.... Originally the family or clan made a definite sphere or system of life; outside of it the homeless man felt indeed that chaos had come again.”[45]