4:10 THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 



ganglia, though united together by nerves, are very incom 

 pletely dependent on any general controlling power. Hence 

 it results that when the body is cut in two, the hinder part 

 continues to move forward under the propulsion of its nu- 



. merous legs; and that when the chain of ganglia has been 

 divided without severing the body, the hind limbs may bo 

 Keen trying to propel the body in one direction, while the 

 fore limbs are trying to propel it in another. Among the 

 higher Articulata, however, a number of the anterior pairs 

 of ganglia, besides growing larger, unite in one mass; and this 

 great cephalic ganglion, becoming the coordinator of all the 

 creature s movements, there no longer exists much local in 

 dependence. 



Xow may we not in the growth of a consolidated king 

 dom out of petty sovereignties or baronies, observe analo 

 gous changes? Like the chiefs and primitive rulers above 



described, feudal lords, exercising supreme power over their 

 respective groups of retainers, discharge functions analo 

 gous to those of rudimentary nervous centres; and we 

 know that at first they, like their analogues, are distin 

 guished by superiorities of directive and executive organiza 

 tion. Among these local governing centres, there is, in 

 early feudal times, very little subordination. They are in 

 frequent antagonism; they are individually restrained chief 

 ly by the influence of large parties in their own class; and 

 are but imperfectly and irregularly subject to that most 

 powerful member of their order who has gained the posi 

 tion of head su/erain or king. As the growth and organi 

 zation of the society progresses, these local directive cen 

 tres fall more and more under the control of a chief direc 

 tive centre, (. loser commercial union between the several 

 segments, is accompanied by closer governmental union ; 

 and these minor rulers end in being little more than agents 

 uho administer, in their several localities, the laws made by 

 the supreme ruler: just as the local ganglia above described. 



