394 THE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 



alimentation, becomes devoted to the co-ordinated move* 

 ments of the entire body politic. 



Equally remarkable is a further analogy of like kind. 

 After the mucous and serous layers of the embryo have 

 separated, there presently arises between the two, a thirds 

 known to ^physiologists as the vascular layer — a layer out 

 of which are developed the chief blood-vessels. The mu- 

 cous layer absorbs nutriment from the mass of yelk it en- 

 closes ; this nutriment has to be transferred to the overly- 

 ing serous layer, out of which the nervo-muscular system 

 is being developed ; and between the two arises a vascular 

 system by which the transfer is effected — a system of ves- 

 sels which continues ever after to be the transferrer of nu- 

 triment from the places where it is absorbed and prepared, 

 to the places where it is needed for growth and repair. 

 Well, may we not trace a parallel step in social progress ? 



Between the governing and the governed, there at first 

 exists no intermediate class ; and even in some societies 

 that have reached considerable sizes, there are scarcely any 

 but the nobles and their kindred on the one hand, and the 

 serfs on the other : the social structure being such, that the 

 transfer of commodities takes place directly from slaves to 

 their masters. But in societies of a higher type, there 

 grows up between these two primitive classes, another — 

 the trading or middle class. Equally, at first as now, we 

 may see that, speaking generally, this middle class is the 

 analogue of the middle layer in the embryo. For all tra- 

 ders are essentially distributors. Whether they be whole- 

 sale dealers, who collect into large masses the commodities 

 of various jDroducers ; or whether they be retailers, who 

 divide out to those who want them, the masses of com- 

 modities thus collected together; all mercantile men are 

 agents of transfer from the places where things are pro- 

 duced to the places where they are consumed. Thus the 

 distributing apparatus of a society, answers to the distribu 



