he other.
They greet each other with a hail of good-fellowship and a cordial
hand-shake and stop for conversation. An analysis of the psychological
elements that enter into such an incident would make plain the part of
sense-perception and memory, of feeling and volition in the act of
each, but the significant fact in the incident is that these mental
factors are set to work because of the contact of one mind upon the
other. It is the mental interaction arising from the moment's
association that produces the social phenomenon. What are the social
phenomena of this particular occasion? They are the acts that have
taken place because of association. The individual would not greet
himself or shake hands with himself, or stop to talk with himself.
They are dependent upon the presence of more than one person; they are
phenomena of the group. Why do they shake hands and talk? First,
because they feel alike and think alike, and sympathy and
like-mindedness seek expression in gesture and language, and,
secondly, because their mode of action is under the control of a
social custom that directs specific acts. If the meeting was on the
continent of Europe the men might embrace, if it was in the jungle of
Africa they might raise a yell at sight of each other, but American
custom limits the greeting to a hand-clasp, supplemented on occasion
by a slap on the shoulder. In Italy the language used is peculiar to
the race and is helped out by many gestures; in New England of the
Puritans the language used would be of a type peculiar to itself, and
would hardly have the assistance of a changing facial expression.
To-day two men have formed a temporary group, group action has taken
place, and the action, while impulsive, is under the constraint of
present custom. What happens next?

21. =The Working of the Social Mind.=--Conversation in the group
develops a common purpose. The two men are conscious of common desires
and interests, or through a conflict of ideas the will of one
subordinates the will of the other, and under the control of the joint
purpose, which is now the social mind, they move toward one goal. This
goal soon appears to be the objective point of a larger social mind,
for other men and boys are converging in the same direction. At the
corner of another street the two companions meet other friends, and
after a mutual greeting the augmented party finds its way to the
entrance of a ball park. The same instincts and habits and