Evolution of Soricti/. 219 



to and aiding to form a new societary unit out of tlie com- 

 bination of such unit-cells. So, too, as in society the units 

 may not be in perfect unity and under perfect control of 

 society, in living bodies there are different degrees of unity 

 with the body of which they are a part, some having more 

 individual power, some less. 



The apparent want of motion in most of the cells making 

 up living bodies, hinders appreciation of the independent 

 cell-life. But in the higher organisms there are to be found 

 increasing numbers of cells having very free motion within 

 limits, each with independent "life-histories," — as the 

 blood corpuscles, which pass from infancy to adult life, and 

 thence to old age, having each a career as complete in it- 

 self, in some respects, as any living thing, and all within 

 the body of the animal, the life not being in any sense 

 parasitic, but an elemental life, normal, necessary, and in 

 entire harmony with the larger life of wdiich it is, or cre- 

 .ates, an essential part. 



If time permitted, many other evidences might be pro- 

 ' duced to show that " an ordinary living organism may be 

 regarded as a nation of units that live individually and 

 have many of them considerable degrees of independence "; 

 and, on further noting in how many human units of the 

 societary organism the individual life is limited and con- 

 trolled by the societary life to which they belong, we shall 

 perceive that when a nation of human beings is regarded 

 as an organism, the analogy is by no means a forced one. 

 In both cases the units, or some of them, may live after 

 the aggregate has been destroyed, and, when undisturbed, 

 the aggregate lives, although the units die and pass away 

 after having performed their proper functions in full — 

 to be succeeded by new generations of unit-citizens, for 

 periods more or less indelinitci. 



Further, it is found that no view of society is complete 

 that does not take into consideration forms of life still 

 lower than men, — as brute-animal and vegetal, — each of 

 Avhich constitutes an essential part of the societary organ- 

 ism, and is found to correspond with essential parts and 

 growth found in all animal organisms, and forming distinct 

 classes of analogy. 



Among living organisms, as we ordinarily apprehend 

 them, the seemingly essential feature is what may be called 

 the cohering unity, or continuity of structure, not so ap- 



