98 SYMBIOSIS 



and secondary needs, can be found to be happy at once with 

 a suddenly changed diet, however otherwise ideal. The new 

 diet may fail of its usual good effects for no other reason than 

 that it does not provide for the exorbitant " special " or fasti- 

 dious tastes or " needs " of parasites or quasi-parasities with 

 which the life of the species has, more or less avoidably, and more 

 or less pathologically, become associated. It is necessary to 

 recognise the relative indispensability of these doubtful " helpers " 

 to their host, who can no more shake them off than do without 

 them, and who, whilst having to provide for their needs, real or 

 unreal, is being slowly transformed into another being : one 

 of special and abnormal appetites and one involved in the 

 meshes of a morbid Pan-Psychism. " Die Geister die ich rief 

 werd' ich nun nicht los." What we should ask ourselves before 

 experimenting with an organism with a view of establishing a 

 standard metabolism, or a standard food requirement, is this : 

 Who is who ? with special reference to associations. In fur- 

 nishing the pabulum, are we providing for real or for imaginary, 

 for primary or secondary needs, for the needs of a dependent 

 or of an autonomous organism ? Surely we cannot take any 

 and every appetite, any and every association for normal ! We 

 must recognise, on the contrary, that many relations, however 

 compatible and even indispensable in appearance, are yet unreal 

 inasmuch as they are of a retrogressive nature. The large fangs 

 of the carnivora may be said to be quite indispensable and even 

 congenial to their proprietors, yet by their excessive demand 

 upon the blood-supply, they damage the brain and inhibit 

 progressive evolution and are pro tanto (for want of a better 

 term) " diabolically " indispensable or useful. And it is the same 

 with regard to biological relations, many of which are really 

 injurious and belonging to the pathological order, though 

 apparently indispensable to the particular organism. 



When one considers how much mankind has yet to learn 

 as regards relatedness and values, one is indeed reminded of the 

 saying of LaoTzu, which seems to have been in Butler's mind 

 often enough, namely, that the truest sayings are paradoxical. 

 The great Chinese sage observes, for instance, that it is the Way 

 of Heaven to take from those who have too much, and give to 

 those who have too little. " But," he continues, " the way 

 of man is not so. He takes away from those who have too little, 

 to add to his own super-abundance. What man is there that can 





