IV THE CELL AND THE ORGANISM 83 



much less complex than either. And just as the individual 

 bee or ant lives its own life and is not lost in the joint 

 venture of the hive or nest, so the individual cell lives its 

 own life and specialises and perfects itself in the organism 

 which it helps to form and to serve without loss or sacrifice 

 of its own identity. The organism embraces innumerable 

 smaller organic units whose identity is not swallowed up 

 in it, is expressed and not suppressed by it. The large 

 organism does not only mean the union and co-operative 

 harmony of its smaller units, but also as a rule the more 

 perfect individuation and specialised development of these 

 units in the harmony of the whole. The plant or animal 

 body is a social community, but a community which allows 

 a substantial development to its individual members. And 

 its nature and structure are such that it can only perfect 

 itself through the differentiation and development of the 

 members which compose it. But while this is so, while (as 

 we shall see more clearly in the sequel) individuation is 

 fundamental in nature, we have to recognise that co- 

 operation plays a no less important and fundamental part. 

 An organism is fundamentally a society in which innumerable' 

 members co-operate in mutual help in a spirit of the most 

 effective disinterested service and loyalty to each other.! 

 Co-operation and mutual help are written large on the face 

 of Nature. Nay, more, if cell structure and function can* 

 teach us anything; they are imprinted deep on the nature 

 of the universe, they are the very meaning and soul of 

 Nature. We may travel far through the realms of Evolution, 

 but nowhere shall we find a more perfect co-operation or a 

 more beautiful illustration of mutual help of one part for 

 another, and of all parts for the whole, as well as of the 

 whole for all its parts, than in the little insignificant cell, 

 which seems to hold the very secret of the universe. '- 

 Anticipating the language of later developments, we may 

 say that in the cell there is implicit an ideal of harmonious 

 co-operation, of unselfish mutual service, of loyalty and 

 duty of each to all such as in our later more highly evolved 

 human associations we can only aspire to and strive for. ( 

 When there was achieved the marvellous and mysterious 



