92 Mind and Matter

trimmed; it is smartened up a little, but there is no other
change. If, on the other hand, he goes bankrupt, or his
kingdom is taken from him and his whole establishment is
broken up and dissipated at the auction mart, then, even
though not one of its component cells actually dies, the
organism as a whole does so, and it is interesting to see that
the lowest, least specialised and least highly differentiated
parts of the organism, such as the scullery-maid and the
stable-boys, most readily find an entry into the life of some
new system, while the more specialised and highly differenti-
ated parts, such as the steward, the old housekeeper and,
still more so, the librarian or the chaplain may never be able
to attach themselves to any new combination, and may die
in consequence. I heard once of a large builder who retired
unexpectedly from business and broke up his establishment
to the actual death of several of his older employes. So a bit
of flesh or even a finger may be taken from one body and
grafted on to another, but a leg cannot be grafted ; if a leg is
cut off it must die. It may, however, be maintained that the
owner dies too, even thougli he recovers, for a man who has
lost a leg is not the man he was.*

* The five notes here amalgamated together into " Croesus and his
Kitchen-Maid " were to have been part of an article for the Universal
Review, but, before Butler wrote it, the review died. I suppose, but I
do not now remember, that the article would have been about Mind
and Matter or Organs and Tools, and, possibly, all the concluding
notes of this group, beginning with "Our Cells/' would have been
introduced as illustrations.