Page:Insect Literature by Lafcadio Hearn.djvu/108

Rh plied criticism is open to question. “The improvement of the individual,” says Herbert Spencer, “consists in the better fitting of him for social coöperation; and this, being conductive to social prosperity, is conductive to the maintenance of the race.” In other words, the value of the individual can be only in relation to the society; and this granted, whether the sacrifice of the individual for the sake of that society be good or evil must depend upon what the society might gain or lose through a further individuation of its members……… But, as we shall presently see, the conditions of ant-society that most deserve our attention are the ethical conditions; and these are beyond human criticism, since they realize that ideal of moral evolution described by Mr. Spencer as “a state in which egoism and altruism are so conciliated that the one merges into the other.” That is to say, a state in which the only possible pleasure is the pleasure of unselfish action. Or, again to quote Mr. Spencer, the activities of the insect-society are “activities which postpone individual well-being so completely to the well-being of the community that individual life appears to be attended to only just so far as is necessary to make possible due attention to social life,………the individual taking only just such food and just such rest as are needful to maintain its vigour,”