They argue about ideal conditions, unmindful of the fact that ideal conditions require ideal men—and that we haven’t got the ideal men. Every society, every state, must from necessity be made up of the Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent and the law-makers of that society, that state, will from necessity be compelled to frame laws suited to _that_ community. Hence, the laws will not be absolutely the best, considering the question as an abstract question, but they will be the best which _that_ community is capable of receiving. All legislation, like all Society, is a compromise. In a state of Nature I would be absolutely free. But I would be alone. To protect myself in person, property or family, I would have to rely upon my individual arm. My absolute freedom would be an absolute isolation and a relative helplessness. I would find that I could not endure such a life. I would therefore seek companionship among other men who felt the same needs that I felt, and we would come together for the “good of all.” One hundred families coming together in this way form the nucleus of Society, of the State. Each man gives up a portion of his individual freedom when he enters this union of families which forms such a nucleus. Why does he surrender a portion of his wild, natural, individual freedom? Why does he agree to be bound by the will of the Community instead of his _own_ will? Why does he consent to be _governed_ by the public when he had previously been his own ruler? He does it because it is to his interest to do it. He finds that, while he has surrendered much, he has gained more. _The Community_ throws around him the protection of a hundred strong arms where previously he had but his own. _The Community_, in a hundred ways, ministers to his wants, his weaknesses, his desires, his prosperity. In other words, the Community gives more than it took. Association which improves the Community tends to improve each member thus associated; and from this association come all those blessings which we call Civilization. Resolve the Association back into its elements; let each individual separate from the mass; let each one say, “I’m my own man,”—and what becomes of Civilization? It perishes, of course. Now where will Tolstoy find the basis of Society _in Nature_? In the human instinct for _getting-together_. And that instinct seems to grow out of our hopes, and our fears, our profound belief that we _need_ our fellow-man, and that we are not strong enough to stand alone, _no matter how much we would like to do so_. Deep down in your heart you will find the primeval, natural craving for independence, individuality, separate living, separate doing. With the great common mass of humanity this tendency has been weakened by disuse until it is not an active principle. It is like a muscle which has lost its strength from inaction. Hence, the common man goes with the herd, just as a flock of sheep follows the bell-wether.