shall be a supplementary repudiation or expression
of regret with reference to the struggle. Moreover, conciliation is to
be distinguished from the situation which may follow it. This may be
either a relationship of attachment or alliance, and reciprocal respect,
or a certain permanent distance which avoids all positive contacts.
Conciliation is thus a removal of the roots of conflict, without
reference to the fruits which these formerly bore, as well as to that
which may later be planted in their place.

D. COMPETITION, STATUS, AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY

1. Personal Competition, Social Selection, and Status[235]

The function of personal competition, considered as a part of the social
system, is to assign to each individual his place in that system. If
"all the world's a stage," this is a process that distributes the parts
among the players. It may do it well or ill, but after some fashion it
does it. Some may be cast in parts unsuited to them; good actors may be
discharged altogether and worse ones retained; but nevertheless the
thing is arranged in some way and the play goes on.

That such a process must exist can hardly, it seems to me, admit of
question; in fact, I believe that those who speak of doing away with
competition use the word in another sense than is here intended. Within
the course of the longest human life there is necessarily a complete
renewal of the persons whose communication and co-operation make up the
life of society. The new members come into the world without any legible
sign to indicate what they are fit for, a mystery to others from the
first and to themselves as soon as they are capable of reflection: the
young man does not know for what he is adapted, and no one else can tell
him. The only possible way to get light upon the matter is to adopt the
method of experiment. By trying one thing and another and by reflecting
upon his experience, he begins to find out about himself, and the world
begins to find out about him. His field of investigation is of course
restricted, and his own judgment and that of others liable to error, but
the tendency of it all can hardly be other than to guide his choice to
that one of the available careers in which he is best adapted to hold
his own. I may say this much, perhaps, without assuming anything
regarding the efficiency or justice of competition as a distributor of
social functions, a matter regarding which I shall offer some
suggestions later. All I w