410 TUE SOCIAL ORGANISM. 



ganglia, though united together by nerves, are veryincom- 

 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 be 

 seen 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 co-ordinator of all the 

 creature's movements, there no longer exists much local in 

 dependence. 



ISTow may we not in the growth of a consolidated king- 

 dom out of petty sovereignties or baromes, 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 suzerain 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. Closer commercial union between the several 

 segments, is accompanied by closer governmental union ; 

 and these minor rulers end in being little more than agents 

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

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



