348 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
If for a little rest and relief from this omnipresent and sometimes oppressive sense of human presence, one betakes himself to a park, he is confronted by others, who, like him self, have fled for rest to the bosom of nature. But there nature is not simply nature any more. Every path, every bush, the green grass and the trees are mute witnesses of the art and care of man. Even the birds and the squirrels are " socialized." There is no relief except in flight from the city; and ordinarily one must travel a great distance to get away from the obtrusive evidences of the monopolizing presence and activity of man. In the city his soul is simply immersed in the consciousness of the human environment.
The consciousness of one s fellowmen is forced upon him not only by the multiplicity of personal contacts but also by the extent and variety of the institutional relations which encompass him. What we may call the social machinery has become even more vast and complex than the mechanical appliances which men use. We have noted the fact that there was not much social organization in primitive life; in modern life it has grown until it is bewildering and op pressive. Let any man of average importance in an ad vanced modern community count up the various organized relations in which he stands, and he will probably be sur prised. Let him look at the economic system of which he is a member. How far reaching and complicated it is ! Then let him think of the educational system, and of the political system, and of the ecclesiastical. Then the benevolent or ders must be taken into account; and the literary societies, the art clubs, the civic organizations, and the convivial the whole endless range of voluntary associations projected for the promotion of every interest under the sun. The or ganized and institutional relations of men are growing more numerous all the time and all are becoming more elaborate and complex (except the family, an exception of capital im portance), and the limits of this process of organizing life no man can foresee. We are already so linked up with our fellows in this way that we often think of the social organ-
�� �
