[24] A visual image may, of course, be something that has never been actually seen. But then its elements have had actual perceptual existence in the past.
[25] Or more generally effector mechanism. This enables us to include reactions, such as secretory ones, which are not motor.
[26] The description is, of course, only a convenient one. The notion of individuality, as it is expressed in the earlier part of this paragraph, is an intuitively felt, or subjective, one. It is best called personality.
[27] Societies and civilisations, the associations of bees and ants, or the Modern State, obviously exhibit this differentiation. It is morphological and functional in the case of the Arthropods, since individuals performing different duties are modified in form. It is functional only in the case of human societies. Integration of the activities of the individuals in both kinds of societies is effected by inter-communication: articulate symbols in the case of the lower animals, language in the case of man. If the concept of “orders of individuality” were anything more than a convenient, though artificial, analysis of naturally integral entities, we might speak of the ideal state or the insect society as a “fourth order of individuality.”
[28] “But,” says Weismann, referring to an objection of this nature, “it should rather be asked whether the size of the atoms and molecules is a fact, and not rather the very questionable result of an uncertain method of investigation.”
[31] We know now that this statement is not quite accurate.
[32] It is assumed that the universe is a finite one. If it were infinite the whole discussion becomes meaningless, and we must give up this and other problems.
[33] Its density would be 1/58 × 108th that of our atmosphere.