THE UNSEEN GOAL 277 



tensify as well as expression, it seems quite legi- 

 timate to suggest that worker-ants and worker-bees, 

 for instance, may find some compensation for their 

 spinsterdom in their generous vicarious mother- 

 hood. And apart from all guesses, the interest- 

 ing fact has now been established for some wasps 

 (as we have already noticed), and for some ants 

 (as Professor Wheeler has recently proved), that 

 nurses and mothers alike may receive from the 

 larvae which they feed and tend drops of an elixir 

 that seems to serve as an extraordinarily stimu- 

 lating encouragement or reward on the path of 

 virtue. 



