r
thought as an immense piece of cloth in which we can cut out what we
will and sew it together again as we please. Let us note, in passing,
that it is this power that we affirm when we say that there is a
_space_, that is to say, a homogeneous and empty medium, infinite and
infinitely divisible, lending itself indifferently to any mode of
decomposition whatsoever. A medium of this kind is never perceived; it
is only conceived. What is perceived is extension colored, resistant,
divided according to the lines which mark out the boundaries of real
bodies or of their real elements. But when we think of our power over
this matter, that is to say, of our faculty of decomposing and
recomposing it as we please, we project the whole of these possible
decompositions and recompositions behind real extension in the form of a
homogeneous space, empty and indifferent, which is supposed to underlie
it. This space is therefore, pre-eminently, the plan of our possible
action on things, although, indeed, things have a natural tendency, as
we shall explain further on, to enter into a frame of this kind. It is a
view taken by mind. The animal has probably no idea of it, even when,
like us, it perceives extended things. It is an idea that symbolizes the
tendency of the human intellect to fabrication. But this point must not
detain us now. Suffice it to say that _the intellect is characterized by
the unlimited power of decomposing according to any law and of
recomposing into any system_.

We have now enumerated a few of the essential features of human
intelligence. But we have hitherto considered the individual in
isolation, without taking account of social life. In reality, man is a
being who lives in society. If it be true that the human intellect aims
at fabrication, we must add that, for that as well as for other
purposes, it is associated with other intellects. Now, it is difficult
to imagine a society whose members do not communicate by signs. Insect
societies probably have a language, and this language must be adapted,
like that of man, to the necessities of life in common. By language
community of action is made possible. But the requirements of joint
action are not at all the same in a colony of ants and in a human
society. In insect societies there is generally polymorphism, the
subdivision of labor is natural, and each individual is riveted by its
structure to the function it performs. In any case, these societies are
based on i