338 THEORETICAL BIOLOGY 



THE COMMUNITY AS AN ORGANISM 



If we mount up still higher in the balloon, there become 

 defined below us the boundaries of a small community- 

 being, which we are able to survey in its entire expanse. We 

 now employ the method of geographers, who are able to con- 

 struct an entire portion of the world on their mapping-table — 

 the method of macroscopy, which, unlike microscopy, makes 

 the details subordinate to the framework of the whole — and 

 we try to detach carefully from the substratum everything 

 that belongs to the human community-being, so that we may 

 spread it out on a small scale on our work-table. We get 

 then a delicate tissue, filled with life. The railways intersect 

 the tissue as firm, straight threads, with which the network 

 of streets and roads connects. Towns, villages and country- 

 houses, interspersed in the network, are filled with little 

 human creatures, which we have carefully detached from the 

 earth, along with all their tools and machines, so that we can 

 study the whole of human production as one complete frame- 

 work. 



The underside of the tissue is the most interesting, which 

 shows us all the apparatus that, like a system of roots, pene- 

 trates the ground for the exploitation of its treasures. Every- 

 where we see ploughs and harrows at work, scratching up the 

 ground. Deeper than these penetrate the shafts that bring 

 up to the surface metals and coal. These directly rob the 

 earth of its treasures, while the ploughs and harrows con- 

 tinually enable it to bear fresh fruits, which are then harvested. 

 All products of the soil move into the interior of the tissue, 

 which they renovate and develop. As well as food and 

 clothing, they provide men with dwellings, and with means 

 for communication and for work. 



All this is effected through the ceaseless labour of a thou- 

 sand tools and machines, which are worked by human beings. 



