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NUMERICAL RELATIONS OF SOCIAL FORMS 131
experience which signifies a well-defined relation to society.
But apart from this, it is important for large groups as
well as for the most intimate relations to which its occurrence
 either as cause or as effect lends a distinct character.
Not only isolation, but also freedom, appears in the
first place as a negation of socialization, as an absence of
all social restraint. This may describe the position of a
Christian or Hindu hermit or of a solitary settler, but for
a social being freedom has a much more positive meaning.
It appears as a continuous process of emancipation from
social restraints, as a struggle, not merely for independence,
 but for the right to enter voluntarily into dependence,
as a struggle which must be renewed after each victory.
Freedom as a negative social attitude is almost never a
permanent possession. It is a process of incessant liberation
 from restraints which limit in reality or attempt to
limit ideally the independence of the individual. It is not
a being, but a becoming, a sociological activity. Itisarelationship,
 even if observed from the standpoint of the agent.
Not only in its functional aspect, but also with regard
to the content, does freedom mean more than absence of
restraint. Freedom from the influence of others would in
numerous cases have no meaning or significance for the
individual if it did not facilitate an extension of his will
over others. While apparently negative in character, freedom
 has therefore in reality a very positive significance.
Freedom consists to a large extent in a process of liberation,
and it obtains meaning and significance as a reaction
against restraint. But it also consists in a position of
strength in the relations with others, in the possibility of
self-assertion in these relations, and in the opportunity for
making others tributarv or subject. It is in these relationships
 that it finds its positive value and realization.!
1 Soz., pp. 76-80.