PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE 



for the formation of animal colonies, when the new 

 individual retains a point of contact with the generating 

 individual. It is by this notion of colony that one 

 explains complex beings, and even superior animals, in 

 considering them as reunions of simple primitive beings 

 which have differentiated themselves and still retained 

 a solidarity, sharing the physiological work between them. 

 Colonies of protozoaires are formed of individuals having 

 identical functions, living in perfect equality, despite the 

 hierarchy of position; colonies of metazoaires are com- 

 posed of specialised members whose separation may be a 

 cause of death for the total individual. There is then, 

 in the latter case, a new being composed of distinct ele- 

 ments which, retaining a certain essential autonomy, 

 have become the organs of a new entity. 



The first living organisms formed their hierarchies 

 thus: individual unicellular, or plastide; group of plas- 

 tides or meride. The merides, as the protozoaires, can 

 reproduce themselves asexually, or by division or budding. 

 They may separate completely or remain attached to 

 their generator. If they remain attached one has 

 mounted a step and attained the zoide. Thence, by 

 colonies of zoides one gets individuals still more complex, 

 called denies. None of these terms is much more than 

 a convenience for memory. The nomenclature stops, as 

 does the progression, at a certain moment, for the evo- 

 lution has its limit, its finality, as does even the milieu 

 in which life continues to evolve. One might say that 

 heaving up from the obscure vital centre, the new animal- 

 shoots branch upward until they knock their heads upon 

 an ideal or imaginary roof which prevents any further 

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