i] IDEA OF INDIVIDUALITY 3 



In view of the change, the progressive change or 

 evolution which is one of the fundamental things of 

 Life, the second method is the more natural, and in 

 a way includes the first. Using it in the main, 

 therefore, but not rejecting the other as an engine, 

 we will begin to lay siege to the notion of in- 

 dividuality ; and so, having justified the necessity 

 for some philosophical view of the subject, but with 

 apologies none the less for a biologist's intrusion on 

 another's domain, we return to Zarathustra and his 

 pronouncement. 



" Accidents do not happen to me." When a glance 

 is thrown over the various forms of animal life to 

 which the name of Individual is naturally conceded 1 , 

 it is seen that in spite of many side-ventures, they 

 can be arranged in a single main series in which 

 certain characters are manifested more clearly and 

 more thoroughly at the top than at the bottom. One 

 of these characters is independence of the outer 



1 There may appear to be a vicious circle in the use of the word 

 individual before we know its definition; in reality there is not. 

 The word individual has not been manufactured to label a theoretical 

 concept, but to denote something existing. It was originally applied 

 to human beings, and a special word had to be used for them because 

 it was felt that they differed in certain important ways from mere 

 things. Certain other objects (all of them organic, but together 

 making only a portion of the whole organic world) are immediately 

 recognized as possessing similar attributes, and it is obvious that 

 they too must be Individuals, although equally obvious that we have 

 only used, without defining, the category " Individual." 



12 



