Analogies Concerning Life 139 



It is easiest to explain my meaning by 

 aid of analogues, by the construction, as it 

 were, of " models," just as is the custom in 

 Physics whenever a recondite idea has to 

 be grasped before it can be properly formu- 

 lated and before a theory is complete. 



I will take two analogies : one from 

 Magnetism and one from Politics. 



" Parliament," or " the Army," is a body 

 which consists of individual members con- 

 stantly changing, and its existence is not 

 dependent on their existence : it pre-existed 

 any particular set of them, and it can 

 survive a dissolution. Even after a com- 

 plete slaughter, the idea of the Army would 

 survive, and another would come into being, 

 to carry on the permanent traditions and 

 life. 



Except as an idea in some sentient mind, 

 it could not be said to exist at all. The 

 mere individuals composing it do not make 

 it : without the idea they would be only a 

 disorganised mob. Abstractions like the 

 British Constitution, and other such things, 



