314 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
For those who may be faint-hearted, the fact to be kept in mind is 
that with all the difficulties that beset the way, union was eventually 
accomplished, that with each union, with each sacrifice of self, with 
each restriction of liberty, there has been a stride toward greater mas- 
tery, toward a fuller, more abundant life for the whole. At one ex- 
treme is individualism, represented by Amoeba, beholden by neither 
jot nor tittle to anyone, groveling withal in the slime and swept hither 
and yon by every whim of nature. At the other extreme are millions 
of interdependent cells united in the form of men who, in turn, through 
their combined efforts have overcome the sufferings of famine, the 
scourge of pestilence, the barriers of distance, the mysteries of the air, 
yes, even the intricacies of creative synthesis. Optimism for the future 
is well expressed in the words of the paleontologist, Lull,° who writes, 
“The great heart of nature beats, its throbbing stimulates the pulse of 
life, and not until that heart is stilled forever will the rhythmic tide 
of progress cease to flow.” 
Among the social insects the price paid to the group for the benefits 
of cooperative action is that the individual be born to a class and have 
stamped upon him unalterably the form of his station in life—worker, 
soldier, king or queen—there to remain toiling dutifully without will 
or choice that the group may survive. That is strait-jacketed, in- 
flexible efficiency, not inviting to those of us outside the pale of Nazi 
or Fascist rule. It has, moreover, fallen short of control, probably 
because its morphological inflexibility is paralleled by inflexibility of 
nervous reaction. 
There is no gainsaying that one of the most patent of biological prin- 
ciples requires that when individual and species conflict, it is the 
individual that must give way even to the extreme of life itself. For 
us the demands of society are indeed becoming more and more exact- 
ing; we are individually being held to a closer and closer accounting. 
There is ever-increasing regimentation. But we of the vertebrate line 
are fortunate in that we belong to a type of social organization which 
permits its members the opportunity of realizing their responsibility 
to the group and of doing their duty voluntarily and without compul- 
sion. If we but will, therein lies our avenue of escape from the fate of 
an enforced regimentation analogous to that of the insects. 
The responsibility which rests upon us individually arises from the 
division of labor inherent in society. Each sequence in the evolution- 
ary progress of living material from microscopic unit to dominating 
mass involved more and more detailed division of labor and with each 
advance there came increasing responsibility. For instance, in an 
unspecialized body like that of a sponge the entire body, as you well 
know, can be taken apart cell by cell and then the whole mass or any 
2 R. S. Lull, Organic evolution, 1929. 
