Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/158



are, on the contrary, specific attributes that are condi- tioned by circumstances. An act that is right is one in accord with the nature of the creature performing it; that which is.wrong is a contrary act. Hence, what is right for one specles of animal may be wrong for another, and the reverse. The conduct of adult human individuals, according to human standards of right and wrong, we call morals; the similar conduct of other animais is a part of what biolo- gists call behavior. But we unconsciously recognize some- thing in common between morals and behavior when we speak of the acts of a child, which we call his behavior rather than his morals. Behavior, in other words, we regard as in- volving less of personal responsibility than mo- rality. Hence we say Fo. 75- A common that animais and chil- speci«s of termite of dren behave, but that eastern North America inhabiting dead wood, adult human beings con- Reticulitermes flaipes, sciously do right or A, B, winged forms, wrong. Yet, the two C, a soldier. D, workers - modes of action accom- plish similar results: if the child behaves properly, his actions are right; if the adu]t bas a proper]y deve]oped moral sense, he too does the right thing, or at least he terrains from doing the wrong thing unless misguided by circumstances or by his reasoning. Animais other than the human, it appears, generally do what is right from their standpoint; but their actions, we say, are instinctive. Some will insist that the terres "right" and "wrong" can have no appli- cation to them. Substitute then, if you please, the expression "appropriate or non-approprate to the ani-

[I?EE6]

TERMITES