Note 9 — H. L. MENCKEN (continued 4)

An excellent discussion of this subject, by Prof. Warner Fite, of Indiana University, appeared in The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods of July 18, 1907. Prof. Fite's article is called "The Exaggeration of the Social," and is a keen and sound criticism of "the now popular tendency to regard the individual as the product of society." As he points out, "any consciousness of belonging to one group rather than another must involve some sense of individuality." In other words, gregariousness is nothing more than an instinctive yearning to profit personally by the possibility of putting others, to some measurable extent, in the attitude of slaves.