146 THE SOCIAL THEORY OF GEORG SIMMEL

fact that each fills a different part of space, which is not
identical with any other part of space and which does not
coincide with any other part, enables us to differentiate
between fully identical objects. The unique character of
space is therefore transferred to objects in so far as they are
viewed in their spatial extension.
In case the spatial location of objects is significant as a
point of reference, as in the case of the land or the soil,
this transference of the characteristic of exclusiveness and
uniqueness becomes of great importance. For social structures
 will then be unique and exclusive to the degree in
which they are tied and related to a specific area of land.
Such sociological forms are characterized by the fact that
within their territory there is no room for an identical
structure. Of other social structures there are a great
many identical forms possible within the same area. Such
forms are mutually permeable. As they have no internal
relations to space, they cannot come into spatial collision.
The best example of the first group is the state, of the latter,
 the church.
The relations between individuals which are created by
a state, or rather which create a state, are so closely related
to territory that a second state on the same territory is an
impossibility. Within a certain area there is, however,
room for more than one guild or more than one church.
The life-principle of a church is non-spatial. It extends
through all space and is therefore not exclusive within a
specific part of space. Within these two extremes there
are intermediate forms. Social structures vary in their
spatial aspects from those that are territorially completely
fixed and thereby unique and exclusive, to those that are
fully superspatial and allow a plurality of identical forms
within the same area. The proximity or distance, the
uniqueness or the plurality which characterize the relations