w well with a
knife, and one cuts badly with a saw. Later, highly-perfected engines
appear, and, wholly special, the sewing-machine and the typewriter:
it is impossible to sew with the typewriter or write with the
sewing-machine.--In like manner, when at the lowest round of the organic
ladder the animal is simply a shapeless jelly, homogeneous and viscous,
all parts of it are equally suited to all functions; the amoebae,
indifferently and by all the cells of its body, can walk, seize,
swallow, digest, breathe, and circulate all its fluids, expel its waste,
and propagate its species. A little higher up, in fresh-water polyp, the
internal sac which digests and the outer skin which serves to envelop
it can, if absolutely necessary, change their functions; if you turn the
animal inside out like a glove it continues to live; its skin, become
internal, fulfills the office of a stomach; its stomach, become
external, fulfills the office of an envelope. But, the higher we ascend,
the more do the organs, complicated by the division and subdivision of
labor, diverge, each to its own side, and refuse to take each other's
place. The heart, with the mammal, is only good for impelling the blood,
while the lungs only furnish the blood with oxygen; one cannot possibly
do the work of the other; between the two domains the special structure
of the former and the special structure of the latter interpose an
impassable barrier.--In like manner, finally, at the very bottom of the
social scale--lower down than the Andamans and the Fuegians--we find a
primitive stage of humanity in which society consists wholly of a herd.
In this herd there is no distinct association in view of a distinct
purpose; there is not even a family--no permanent tie between male and
female; there is simply a contact of the sexes. Gradually, in this
herd of individuals, all equal and all alike, particular groups define
themselves, take shape, and separate: we see appearing more and more
precise relationships, more and more distinct habitations, more and
more hereditary homesteads, fishing, hunting, and war groups, and
small workshops; if the people is a conquering people, castes establish
themselves. At length, we find in this expanded and solidly-organized
social body provinces, communes, churches, hospitals, schools, corporate
bodies and associations of every species and dimension, temporary or
permanent, voluntary or involuntary, in brief, a multitude of social
engin