34 ANIMAL INDIVIDUALITY [CH. 



has found expression in Milton's words, when to 

 Limbo he consigns, not " Eremites and Friars " only, 

 exiled thither for theological reasons, but " Embryos 

 and Idiots " as well. 



The very conjunction of his words will help us out 

 of the difficulty. In our thought, the idea of human 

 individuality has become interwoven with that of 

 personality a purely mental attribute. Even though 

 by embryo Milton meant abortion, the lack of 

 mentality of personality and of soul, if you will, 

 which it shares with the idiot, is the same whether it 

 be within or without the womb, and he was right in 

 regarding its fate as a grave theological problem. 

 But (though the reasons for the defect of mental 

 power are different in the two cases) an embryo 

 cannot because it lacks personality be considered to 

 lack individuality too, any more than an adult idiot 

 can, although the individuality is no doubt less intense 

 or perfect than in the normal adult man. It is this 

 confusion of personality and individuality that raises 

 most doubts in the mind of the average man as to 

 the claims of the foetus to be called an individual. 

 The other chief doubt arises from its incapacity to live 

 out of its mother's body. But reflection will show 

 that the embryo is like every other living thing in being 

 able to exist only under certain defined conditions, 

 which are merely much narrower for it than for the 

 adult man and the generality of animals. (See p. 132.) 



