THE LAW OF SYMBIOTIC MODERATION 143 



rendering the " business " and " profits " of the species illegitimate, 

 and virtually constituting a divorce from biological Symbiosis, 

 with the result of a distortion of domestic and sexual Symbiosis. 

 It is clear that a considerable degree of co-ordination, of co- 

 operation, of dutiful and complete performance of function, 

 is required from every part of a complex organisation in order 

 that it may duly procreate the polity as a whole a process which 

 probably, as Darwin suggested, and recent research seems to some 

 extent to confirm, involves a complicated method of Pangenesis, 

 together with other complicated processes entailed in fertilisation. 

 Sexual reproduction, in other words, in order to be successful, 

 requires the co-operation of all the conditions favourable to a 

 high degree of reciprocity, such as effort and adequate moderation 

 and restraint in fact the identical conditions which we have 

 found to be indispensable to successful biological Symbiosis. 

 The " reduction " processes characteristic of fertilisation may be 

 viewed as purporting in part the return to conditions of 

 simplicity and of moderation in the very constitution of the 

 organism ; and fertilisation itself may be regarded as in part a 

 process of rejuvenation by means of a riddance of superfluous 

 material superfluous " profits." The organism is passed through 

 the unicellular stage so as to be equipped (so that the race may 

 be restarted) with all, but with no more than what is strictly 

 necessary, for perfect socio-physiological function. Where surfeit, 

 i.e., over-feeding, occurs, fertilisation is altogether impeded. A 

 fast is often the equivalent of fertilisation in restoring rejuven- 

 escence to the species. Evidence of this effect may be abundantly 

 culled from Prof. Farmer's pages, who also notes in this connection 

 the antithesis on which I have insisted between individuality and 

 redundancy, as when he says that 



The sexual act itself stands in strong antithesis to vegetative propa- 

 gation, for it does not directly involve an increase, but a reduction in the 

 number of cells. Two cells which we may call the gametes, are concerned 

 in the process, and they invariably coalesce to form one the zygote, 



The uniting cells, I would add, stand in a relation of reciprocal 

 differentiation to one another, that is in a symbiotic relation a 

 truth which needs emphasising over and over again. The 

 behaviour of the uniting cells warrants the inference that they 

 conform to the rules oi Symbiosis. On any other explanation 

 their behaviour is quite unintelligible and mysterious, as the 



