We are consequently led to the higher aspects of history where the centre of gravity of the matter lies in the relations of wills.

By will-relations is meant the impact of individuals upon one another from the side of meaning.  It is through the expressions of the meaning of our concepts that we are able to construct an intelligible world.  The individual’s [p.73] deeper reality does not consist in the percept we obtain of him, but in the mental attitude he has expressed towards a mental attitude of ours.  The clothing of meaning is certainly physical; there is our friend’s physical body in front of us, and his speech is audible in a physical sense to physical ears.  But neither body nor speech is absolutely necessary for the expression of meaning to another.  We have neither seen nor heard many of the individuals who have exercised great influence over our lives.  Words have answered the purpose.  By this is not meant that we have not lost something of great value in having to depend on print alone.  Something of every individual reveals itself in his body and speech which is missed when we have to depend on paper and ink as mediums of meaning.  But meaning is something other than its medium; it is a mental or spiritual content.  This content has to be classified and interpreted.  The interpretation forms here again, as on the level of natural science, syntheses and generalisations larger than any one individual.  These are the resultants of mind with mind and will with will.  When human beings come into contact with each other, there originates a state of things in which something is thought and done. What is thought and done deals with situations outside the situation of each individual.  The interpretation of these situations is, therefore, an objective reality which becomes a [p.74] norm for each individual.  Mankind has thus created a reality which is beyond that of the content of each individual’s experience as an individual.

We thus see that there are presented in such norms two aspects of a very different nature.  On the one hand, we discover the contribution of each individual, and witness events dealing with situations which succeed one another with greater or less rapidity.  This aspect is in constant flux.  It constitutes the capability of meeting the needs of the moment.  All this works well so long as the needs of the moment involve no great complexities.  But immediately the situation becomes complex there is a turn to something besides this mere flow of things.[21] To what?  It is a turn to something whose nucleus of meaning and value has persisted in the midst of all the flow.  This is no other than one or other of the highest of the ideal constructions which formed the basis of the life of the community.  The community had been unconsciously garnering something over-individual and over-historical for its future use.  Thus, in history itself there is the presence of a reality