his or her value estimated in
terms of contribution to other lives, but all to seek the utmost
perfection of individual life as a contribution to the common life;
this is the democratic ideal.

=The Family as an Aid to Spiritual Democracy.=--There seems to be no
other inherited institution in which this spiritual essence of
democracy can be so clearly and so well realized as it may be and
to-day often is in the private monogamic family. The permanent and
successful family offers a unique centre of personal development at
the heart of all other social groups. Founded as it is in selective
affection, and in aim at least permanently secure, it offers a refuge
in every distress and a help in every trouble of each of its members.
There was never a time when such a mutual resistance of a small and
intimate group to the complex pressure of the world upon each
individual life was more sorely needed. The confusing social currents
of this changing era set free from ancient moorings many who can find
no clear chart for newer voyaging in thought and action. These need
what the family more than any other inherited institution can still
give--something of the simplicity of the blood bond and something of
the strength of clan membership, and more of the partial affection
which sets each personality in its best light and gives each a chance
to better its own world achievement in the appreciation of its
dearest.

=The Family the Nursery of Personality.=--The family in this sense of
comforting and developing the individual nature has as yet no rival.
Says Browning, "Every man has two soul sides--one to face the world
with and one to show a woman when he loves her." There are those who
blame the family relationship for its exclusiveness and partiality,
and there are countless instances where the ego is so extended into
the blood group that selfish disregard of all others becomes a mark of
family affection. Yet is it profoundly true that just as the baby
needs some one to whom its little life is all-important in order to
gain strength of will to achieve its difficult beginnings of
consciousness, so all of us need a small group in which our well-being
and our happiness are of greater concern than those of any one person
can be to all the world of persons. No truly enlightened person
believes that he or she is as wise or as good as the best friend
thinks; and no truly enlightened person believes that the affection of
one's family is a jus