rue that
individual interests are bound up with the prosperity of the group,
and that the food that he eats, the clothes that he wears, and the
money that he handles and uses are all his because social industry
prevails, there is some danger of overlooking the importance of the
individual. Though he does not exist alone, the individual with his
distinctive personality is the unit of society. Without individuals
there would be no society, without the action of the individual mind
there would be no action of the social mind, without individual
leadership there would be little order or progress. The single cell
that made up the lowest forms of animal life is still the unit of that
complex thing that we call the human body, and the well-being of the
single cell is essential to the health and even the existence of the
whole body; so the single human being is fundamental to the existence
and health of the social body. No analysis of society is at all
complete that does not include a study of the individual man.

363. =The Psychology of the Individual.=--Self-examination during the
course of a single day helps to explain the life forces that act upon
other individuals now and that have forged human history. In such
study of self it soon becomes apparent to the student that the
physical factor is subordinate to the psychic, but that they are
connected. As soon as he wakes in the morning his mental processes are
at work. Something has called back his consciousness from sleep. The
light shining in at his window, the bell calling him to meet the day's
schedule, the odor of food cooking in the kitchen, are physical
stimuli calling out the response of his sense-perceptions; his mind
begins at once to associate these impressions and to react upon his
will until he gets out of bed and proceeds to prepare himself for the
day. These processes of sensation, association, and volition
constitute the simple basis of individual life upon which the complex
structure of an active personality is built.

The individual will is moved to activity by many agencies. There is
first the instinct. As a person inherits physical traits from his
ancestors, so he gets certain mental traits. The demand for food is
the cry of the instinct for self-preservation. The grimace of the
infant in response to the mother's smile is an expression of the
instinct for imitation. The reaching out of its hand to grasp the
sunshine is in obedience to the instinct for acq