ii.] THE FUNCTION OF THE INTELLECT 157 



of our faculty of decomposing and recomposing it as we 

 please, we project the whole of these possible decompositions 

 and recompositions behind real extension in the form of a 

 homogeneous space, empty and indifferent, which is 

 supposed to underlie it. This space is therefore, pre- 

 eminently, the plan of our possible action on things, al- 

 though, indeed, things have a natural tendency, as we 

 shall explain further on, to enter into a frame of this 

 kind. It is a view taken by mind. The animal has 

 probably no idea of it, even when, like us, it perceives ex- 

 tended things. It is an idea that symbolizes the tendency 

 of the human intellect to fabrication. But this point 

 must not detain us now. Suffice it to say that the intellect 

 is characterized by the unlimited power of decomposing ac- 

 cording to any law and of recomposing into any system. 



We have now enumerated a few of the essential features 

 of human intelligence. But we have hitherto considered 

 the individual in isolation, without taking account of social 

 life. In reality, man is a being who lives in society. If 

 it be true that the human intellect aims at fabrication, we 

 must add that, for that as well as for other purposes, it is 

 associated with other intellects. Now, it is difficult to 

 imagine a society whose members do not communicate by 

 signs. Insect societies probably have a language, and this 

 language must be adapted, like that of man, to the neces- 

 sities of life in common. By language community of action 

 is made possible. But the requirements of joint action 

 are not at all the same in a colony of ants and in a human 

 society. In insect societies there is generally polymor- 

 phism, the subdivision of labor is natural, and each indi- 

 vidual is riveted by its structure to the function it performs. 

 In any case, these societies are based on instinct, and con- 

 sequently on certain actions or fabrications that are more 

 or less dependent on the form of the organs. So if the ants, 



