by its use of coercive power, by its
supremacy, and by its claim to control all who dwell within its
geographical limits. What the functions of such a form of association
are to be we shall have to consider a little further in connection with
the other questions which we have already raised. But that, in general,
we are justified in regarding the State as one among many forms of human
association for the maintenance and improvement of life is the general
principle that we have to point out here, and this is the point at which
we stand furthest from the older Liberalism. We have, however, already
seen some reason for thinking that the older doctrines led, when
carefully examined, to a more enlarged conception of State action than
appeared on the surface; and we shall see more fully before we have done
that the "positive" conception of the State which we have now reached
not only involves no conflict with the true principle of personal
liberty, but is necessary to its effective realization.

There is, in addition, one principle of historic Liberalism with which
our present conception of the State is in full sympathy. The conception
of the common good as it has been explained can be realized in its
fullness only through the common will. There are, of course, elements of
value in the good government of a benevolent despot or of a fatherly
aristocracy. Within any peaceful order there is room for many good
things to flourish. But the full fruit of social progress is only to be
reaped by a society in which the generality of men and women are not
only passive recipients but practical contributors. To make the rights
and responsibilities of citizens real and living, and to extend them as
widely as the conditions of society allow, is thus an integral part of
the organic conception of society, and the justification of the
democratic principle. It is, at the same time, the justification of
nationalism so far as nationalism is founded on a true interpretation of
history. For, inasmuch as the true social harmony rests on feeling and
makes use of all the natural ties of kinship, of neighbourliness, of
congruity of character and belief, and of language and mode of life, the
best, healthiest, and most vigorous political unit is that to which men
are by their own feelings strongly drawn. Any breach of such unity,
whether by forcible disruption or by compulsory inclusion in a larger
society of alien sentiments and laws, tends to mutilate-