242 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL sion of labor, a far-going specialization, while yet maintain- ing the functional unity of the economic system. It is only after the introduction of money and the full development of the money economy that the factual contents of life reach their complete objective independence. And only after that stage has been reached can the objective culture outrun the subjective culture. But money also helps the realization of the other form of discrepancy. It places it- self between man and this objective factual world and gives him a self-sufficient existence. It guards and protects his personal life from the immediate contacts with objects and thereby enables the personal energies to grow unham- pered. The function of money in these growing discrepancies is most important in the fields in which objective culture outruns subjective culture. That it also serves the oppo- site form of discrepancy merely shows its specific character as a historical force. It belongs to those forces which are characterized by the fact that they have no character of their own, that they are purely formal, functional, and quantitative, and can therefore serve the most divergent tendencies and paint life in the most varying colors. Its significance for the style of modern life is not diminished because it serves both types of relationship between sub- jective and objective culture, but rather increased; not denied, but rather proven.! Money as the Symbol of Modern Life Not only the quantitative relation between subjective and objective culture, but also the distance or proximity between man and his culture, is an important item in the style and perspective of life. Modern life is characterized by an increasing distance in the personal, subjective rela- 1 Phil. des Geldes, pp. 501-33; Philosophische Kultur, pp. 240-53.