THE MECHANISTIC CONCEPTION 29 



smaller than atoms the electrons or corpuscles. 

 So long as the point of view in biology continues to 

 deepen without intermission, is it unreasonable to 

 believe that the most satisfying explanation of life 

 will ever be one which has its basis in the operations 

 of natural forces ? 



Ill 



Let us now turn aside from the main current of our 

 discussion of the animal body as a mechanism, in 

 order to glance at the analogy offered by this doc- 

 trine to large groups of human beings living under 

 the conditions of organized society. 



The human body has many times been compared 

 with a republic in which the component parts, while 

 living largely independent existences, live for the 

 good of the whole. Despite the fact that the com- 

 parison is one which quite fails in several important 

 respects, it is not without the merit of verisimilitude 

 in some directions and offers a suggestive means of 

 exhibiting certain peculiarities of bodily organiza- 

 tion. The comparison demands that the different 

 types of cells in an individual be likened to the vari- 

 ous types of workers in a state. But the similarity 

 between worker and cell obviously breaks down in 

 at least two important directions. Not only do all 

 the workers of a state constantly shift their position 

 with respect to each other, but what is still more 

 important, they are at liberty to alter their occupa- 



