Previous: THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE.
THE AMŒBOID CELL.
Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell, “Why don’t you develop like me? Just combine with the others, Unite with your brothers, And grow to a thing you can see,— An organized creature like me!” Said the Amœboid Cell to the Specialized Cell, “But where would my liberty be? If I’m one with a class, I should lose in the mass All my Individualitee! And that is a horror to me!” Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell, “What good does it do you to-day? You’re amorphous and small, You’ve no organs at all, You can’t even get out of the way! You don’t half understand what I say!” Said the Amœboid Cell to the Specialized Cell, “But I’m independent and free! I can float as I please In these populous seas, I’m not fastened to anybodee! I have personal freedom, you see! “And when I want organs and members and such, I project them,—an arm or a wing; I can change as I will, But you have to keep still— Just a part of the mass where you cling! You never can be but one thing!” Said the Specialized Cell to the Amœboid Cell, “What you say is undoubtedly true, But I’d rather be part Of a thing with a heart Than the whole of a creature like you! A memberless morsel like you! “You say you’re immortal and separate and free, Yet you’ve died by the billion before; Just a speck in the slime At the birthday of time, And you never can be any more! As you are, you’ve no future in store! “You say you can be many things in yourself, Yet you’re all just alike to the end! I am part of a whole— Of a thing with a soul— And the whole is the unit, my friend! But that you can scarce comprehend! “You are only yourself,—just a series of ones; You can only say ‘I’—never ‘we’; All of us are combined In a creature with mind, And we are the creature you see! And the creature feeds us—which is me! “And being combined in a body like that It can wisely provide us with food; And we vary and change In a limitless range; We are specialized now, for our good! And we each do our work—as we should! “What protection have you from the chances of Fate? What provision have you for the morrow? You get food when it drops, And you die when it stops! You can’t give or take, lend or borrow! You helpless free-agent of sorrow!” Just then came a frost, and the Amœboid Cell Died out by the billion again; But the Specialized Cell In the body felt well And rejoiced in his place in the brain! The dead level of life with a brain!
Previous: THE CART BEFORE THE HORSE.