144 ANIMAL INDIVIDUALITY [OH. 



what life has accomplished in producing our own 

 bodies, we can never despair. But we must not be 

 too far tempted by biological analogies : the main 

 problem is the same, but the details all are new. 

 The individuals to be fused into a higher whole are 

 separate organisms with conscious, reasoning minds 

 personalities ; and the solution will never be found 

 in the almost total subordination of the parts to the 

 whole, as of the cells in our own bodies or the sweated 

 labourer in our present societies, but in a harmony 

 and a prevention of waste, which will both heighten 

 the individuality of the whole and give the fullest 

 scope to the personalities of all its members. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE RELATION OF INDIVIDUALITY TO MATTER; 

 CONCLUSION 



"Shall man into the mystery of breath, 

 From his quick-beating pulse a pathway spy? 

 Or learn the secret of the shrouded death, 

 By lifting up the lid of a white eye ? " 



MEREDITH. 



A VERY striking experiment can be made on many 

 of those free-living flatworms, the Planaria. If they 

 are cut in two longitudinally, the halves will regenerate 

 into perfect wholes, and this whether they are fed or 



