CHAP, in THE APPEAL TO BIOLOGY 29 



together, sympathising fully with one another. It is 

 an extension of the Christian spirit which leads 

 modern thinkers to apply the same image to the 

 State or to civil society. The contrast has been 

 tellingly drawn between St. Paul's appeal as to a 

 well-known fact "Ye are members one of another" 

 and the Greek despair of being able to name any 

 authority strong enough to overrule personal selfish- 

 ness. When modern thinkers call society an organ- 

 ism, they say in effect, not merely to fellow-Christians, 

 but to fellow-citizens or fellow-men, " We are mem- 

 bers one of another;" they say it, counting on a 

 response ; and they obtain not a little response, 

 thanks to the spread of the Christian spirit and 

 Christian ethic. Moreover, science takes up the 

 keynote in such a phrase as " the physiological di- 

 vision of labour," a phrase which shows us how the 

 lower science is at times indebted for suggestions to 

 a higher in this instance, physiology, to the eco- 

 nomic branch of the science of society but which 

 also shows us the reality and the scientific service- 

 ableness of the analogy between the two fields of 

 study. 



Apparently Comte himself was aware that biology 

 and sociology in some respects formed a class to- 

 gether, contrasting with the lower sciences. In his 

 little book on Comte, Dr. Edward Caird twice over l 

 tells us that Comte recognised even in biology, much 

 more in sociology, the necessity of bringing to a focus 

 that esprit d y ensemble for which he pleads, and for 

 explaining the parts by their place and function in 

 the whole, not the whole by the co-operation of 



1 2nd edition, pp. 61, 132. 



