THE UNIQUENESS OF THE INDIVIDUAL 



or 'kind**), yet the combinants are so numerous, and so generous 

 are the ways in which they may be combined, that every human 

 being is genetically unique; the texture of human diversity is 

 almost infinitely close woven. But what is the '"meaning"' of this 

 diversity, i.e. what intelligible function does it fulfil? That is 

 not a question one can very well ask of human beings, because 

 the answer would be too complicated and too hedged around 

 with qualifying clauses; but the gist of the answer, as it relates 

 to lower organisms, is this. Inborn diversity makes for versatil- 

 ity in evolution. Every living species must provide not only 

 for the present but also for what may happen to it in the 

 future; only those lineages survive to the present day which, 

 in the past, were versatile enough to come to terms with their 

 environment. All organisms must have a genetical system, as \ 

 they must also have immunological and nervous systems, which 

 can cope efiiciently with what has not yet been experienced — 

 with what, if they were sentient, we should call the unforeseen. 

 Bacteria and other micro-organisms, for example, must have a 

 genetical system which will protect them as effectively from 

 antibiotics which have vet to be discovered as from those which 

 they have coped with hitherto. Only inborn diversity, and a ^ 

 genetical system which keeps that diversity permanently in 

 being, can make this possible. It is a mere truism that if inborn 

 diversity and genetic individuality were to be extinguished, as 

 in some animals they can be, by inbreeding, then selection 

 would have nothing to act on, and the species would be left 

 without evolutionary resource. Curiously enough, this would 

 probably be less harmful to human beings than to any other 

 animal, for men have devices for avoiding the rigours of selec- 

 tion, and can change the environment instead of letting the 

 environment change them. So far from being one of his higher 

 or nobler qualities, his individuality shows man nearer kin to 

 mice and goldfish than to the angels; it is not his individuality 

 but only his awareness of it that sets man apart. 



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