lustrates this further development and its further analogies. To
kings and their ministries have been added, in England, other great
directive centres, exercising a control which, at first small, has been
gradually becoming predominant: as with the great governing ganglia
which especially distinguish the highest classes of living beings.
Strange as the assertion will be thought, our Houses of Parliament
discharge, in the social economy, functions which are in sundry respects
comparable to those discharged by the cerebral masses in a vertebrate
animal. As it is in the nature of a single ganglion to be affected only
by special stimuli from particular parts of the body; so it is in the
nature of a single ruler to be swayed in his acts by exclusive personal
or class interests. As it is in the nature of a cluster of ganglia,
connected with the primary one, to convey to it a greater variety of
influences from more numerous organs, and thus to make its acts conform
to more numerous requirements; so it is in the nature of the subsidiary
controlling powers surrounding a king to adapt his rule to a greater
number of public exigencies. And as it is in the nature of those great
and latest-developed ganglia which distinguish the higher animals, to
interpret and combine the multiplied and varied impressions conveyed to
them from all parts of the system, and to regulate the actions in such
way as duly to regard them all; so it is in the nature of those great
and latest-developed legislative bodies which distinguish the most
advanced societies, to interpret and combine the wishes of all classes
and localities, and to make laws in harmony with the general wants. We
may describe the office of the brain as that of _averaging_ the
interests of life, physical, intellectual, moral; and a good brain is
one in which the desires answering to these respective interests are so
balanced, that the conduct they jointly dictate, sacrifices none of
them. Similarly, we may describe the office of a Parliament as that of
_averaging_ the interests of the various classes in a community; and a
good Parliament is one in which the parties answering to these
respective interests are so balanced, that their united legislation
allows to each class as much as consists with the claims of the rest.
Besides being comparable in their duties, these great directive centres,
social and individual, are comparable in the processes by which their
duties are discharged. The c