In it and by it only
Hello,
“As they stand they are like the figures in an old tapestry; they do not separate themselves from the background, and at a distance seem to lose their pattern, so that you have little but a pleasing piece of colour. My only excuse is that the impression they made on me was no other. There was just that shadowiness about them which you find in people whose lives are part of the social organism, so that they exist in it and by it only. They are like cells in the body, essential, but, so long as they remain healthy, engulfed in the momentous whole.”
From W. Somerset Maugham: The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
http://www.literaturepage.com/read/moonandsixpence-23.html
Could you explain the meaning of “by it”?
I am still a bit confused after asking the same question here https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/in-it-and-by-it-only.3626179/
Does "by it" mean they live by the principles/ideas of the social organism? Or does it mean their life depends on the social organism?
Top answer
I understand "by it" to mean "by means of it", so yes, more or less it means that they depend on it (the social organism) for their existence.
- I understand "by it" to mean "by means of it", so yes, more or less it means that they depend on it (the social organism) for their existence.
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I understand "by it" to mean "by means of it", so yes, more or less it means that they depend on it (the social organism) for their existence.
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