oment. This doctrine which I call atomistic and which appears to be
anti-historical, reveals from under a concealing cloak a strongly
materialistic nature. For in its endeavors to isolate the present from
the past and the future, it rejects the spiritual inheritance of ideas
and sentiments which each generation receives from those preceding and
hands down to the following generation thus destroying the unity and
the spiritual life itself of human society.

This common basis shows the close logical connection existing between
all political doctrines; the substantial solidarity, which unites all
the political movements, from Liberalism to Socialism, that until
recently have dominated Europe. For these political schools differ
from one another in their methods, but all agree as to the ends to be
achieved. All of them consider the welfare and happiness of
individuals to be the goal of society, itself considered as composed
of individuals of the present generation. All of them see in society
and in its juridical organization, the state, the mere instrument and
means whereby individuals can attain their ends. They differ only in
that the methods pursued for the attainment of these ends vary
considerably one from the other.

Thus the Liberals insist that the best manner to secure the welfare of
the citizens as individuals is to interfere as little as possible with
the free development of their activities and that therefore the
essential task of the state is merely to coordinate these several
liberties in such a way as to guarantee their coexistence. Kant, who
was without doubt the most powerful and thorough philosopher of
liberalism, said, "man, who is the end, cannot be assumed to have the
value of an instrument." And again, "justice, of which the state is
the specific organ, is the condition whereby the freedom of each is
conditioned upon the freedom of others, according to the general law
of liberty."

Having thus defined the task of the state, Liberalism confines itself
to the demand of certain guarantees which are to keep the state from
overstepping its functions as general coordinator of liberties and
from sacrificing the freedom of individuals more than is absolutely
necessary for the accomplishment of its purpose. All the efforts are
therefore directed to see to it that the ruler, mandatory of all and
entrusted with the realization, through and by liberty, of the
harmonious happiness of everybody, should never be cl