90 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



whole, this apparently contradicts what we have 

 just inculcated above. 



> This is where our human flexibility comes in. Man 

 should neither live whole-heartedly for himself, nor 

 throw his individuality, ant-like, beneath the wheels 

 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 contributing 

 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 question 



y 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. 



