92 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



of the community Juggernaut. He can escape from 

 the dilemma by passing from one state to the other. 

 For part of his time, he can apply his energies as a 

 specialized unit — for the rest, he can be a complete 

 individual, realizing the various potentialities of his 

 many-sided nature, with the community contribut- 

 ing to his development, not he to the community's. 

 And not only can he, but he should act thus. 



Be it noted, to avoid misapprehension, that I have 

 here been using the community to denote the single 

 aggregate unit which from the beginning has played 

 such an important part biologically in human evolu- 

 tion, not merely as denoting the sum of individuals 

 considered separately. 



Thus biology gives a definite answer to this ques- 

 tion too. Pure individualism is condemned, and so 

 is what we may call ant-and-bee socialism. Some 

 form of the "dual day/' to use a current phrase, or at 

 least of the "dual life," is the method which seems to 

 be in accord with the enduring principles of biology, 

 although the precise details are not and cannot be 

 the biologist's concern, and particular lives, such as 

 that of the creative artist, who moves on a different 

 plane of reality, escape his analysis. 



I have reserved to the close that biological prin- 

 ciple which has been most often and most seriously 

 misapplied in sociology and politics — the struggle 

 for existence. Never was the proverb about the 

 Devil's quoting Scripture better exemplified than in 

 this matter. This fundamental idea of Darwin's has 



