cessary for the preservation
and insurance of that right to all individuals. There is an
incontestable right of the individual to full and free self-development
and expression so long as no other individual's right to a like freedom
is infringed upon. No individual right can be an _absolute_ right in a
society, but must be subject to such restrictions as may be necessary to
safeguard the like right of every other individual, and of society as a
whole. _Absolute_ personal liberty is not possible; to grant it to any
one individual would be equivalent to denying it to others. If, in a
certain community, a need is commonly felt for a system of drainage to
protect the citizens against the perils of a possible outbreak of
typhoid or some other epidemic disease, and all the citizens agree upon
a scheme except two or three, who, in the name of personal liberty,
declare that their property must not be touched, what is to be done? If
the citizens, out of solicitude for the personal liberty of the
objecting individuals, abandon or modify their plans, is it not clear
that the liberty of the many has been sacrificed to the liberty of the
few, which is the essence of tyranny? Absolute individual liberty is
incompatible with social liberty. The liberty of each must, in Mill's
phrase, be bounded by the like liberty of all. Absolute personal liberty
is a chimera, a delusion.

Even the Anarchist must come to a realization of the fact that liberty
is not an absolute, but a relative and limited, right. Kropotkin, for
example, realizes that, even under Anarchism, any individual who did
not live up to his obligations, or who persisted in conducting himself
in a manner obnoxious or injurious to the community, would have to be
expelled.[183] This is very like Spencer's practical abandonment of the
doctrine of _laissez faire_ individualism. Says he: "Many facts have
shown us that while the individual man has acquired liberty as a citizen
and greater religious liberty, he has also acquired greater liberty in
respect of his occupations; and here we see that he has simultaneously
acquired greater liberty of combination for industrial purposes. Indeed,
in conformity with the universal law of rhythm, _there has been a change
from excess of restriction to deficiency of restriction_. As is implied
by legislation now pending, the facilities for forming companies and
raising compound capitals have been too great."[184] Here is a very
definite confession