SIR OLIVER LODGE 261 



ality, then there is nothing to persist. Whether all 

 human beings have sufficient personality to make their 

 individual persistence likely, is a question that may be 

 argued. Whether some of the higher animals have 

 acquired a kind of individuality, a character and affec- 

 tion, which seems worthy of continued existence, may 

 also be argued. There may be many grades of exist- 

 ence, many grades of personality, and accordingly 

 there may be many grades of survival. 



To illustrate this, and to get into closer touch with 

 the subject, we may take some examples. The human 

 body is composed of cells, and some of those cells have 

 a life or vitality of their own. Some indeed, such as 

 the white corpuscles in the blood, have an independent 

 motivity, analogous to that of the amceba. They move 

 with apparent spontaneity, they assimilate and digest 

 and excrete; they subdivide and thereby increase in 

 number: in other words, they have many of the at- 

 tributes of independent existence. Yet they are essen- 

 tially parts of a community: the communal life is the 

 important thing, but by their activity they serve that 

 communal life. They help to keep the whole body in 

 health, and their individual life is sometimes sacrificed 

 to that end. In so far as they are individuals, their 

 individuality seems unimportant. 



Many examples of this communal life may be ad- 

 duced. For instance, in a hive of bees it would seem 

 to be the communal life that is the important thing. 

 The individuals go about their business in an instinc- 

 tive manner, but willingly sacrifice themselves for the 

 good of the community. Their individual existence is 

 short and strenuous: they speedily succumb to over- 

 work or to the dangers encountered, but the commu- 



