COMMUNAL SOCIETIES. 



329 



ment that the labor of each is for the good of all is stronger than ever. 

 It is not expressly formulated, but it exists everywhere in practice. 

 Men work less and less for their individual interests, and more and 

 more for the good of the community. The woodsman who fells a tree 

 in a Western forest has no thought of using its wood for himself. He 

 neither knows nor cares what may become of it. But he knows that 

 in one region a farmer is raising grain, and in another an artisan is 

 weaving cloth, and that some of these will come to him in exchange 

 for his labor. And between woodsman, farmer, and artisan, are fifty 

 or live hundred other individuals, each of whom takes some part in 

 this exchange of products. Neither of these parties works directly 

 for himself, yet each works for the good of all in a far higher and 

 more developed sense than in the analogous case of the communal 

 insects. 



It is necessary now to return to another phase of the subject here 

 considered, that relating to the intellectual develojDment of animals. 

 It has often been a source of wonder that the ants and bees have ad- 

 vanced so far in intellectual achievement beyond all other members 

 of the insect class, and that many of their habits and institutions so 

 closely simulate those of human society. This latter, indeed, is but 

 another evidence of the law above considered, that all evolution, 

 whether physical or mental, is controlled by one general principle, 

 and must follow one naturally determined course. But the superior 

 intellectuality of these low forms of life is in itself a phenomenon that 

 calls for some special attention. 



A glance at the situation at once reveals that this superiority of 

 intellectual progress must in some way be connected with the com- 

 munal stage of association, since it is manifested only by the com- 

 munal animals, the ants, bees, termites, and beavers, and is not shown 

 in any of the solitary species of these zoological groups. Evidence 

 pointing in the same direction may be found in the habits of the social 

 animals, which seem to have reasoned out the expedient of stationing 

 sentries to guard them against danger while feeding. And it is inter- 

 esting in this connection to perceive that the elephants, the most ad- 

 vanced of the herbivora in social combination, likewise display the 

 greatest intellectual advancement. 



We might deduce from these facts either the conclusion that intel- 

 lectual development is favored by close association and communalism, 

 or the reverse conclusion that an original superior intellectuality was 

 the inciting cause of communal association. A consideration of all the 

 facts of the case seems to prove that the former conclusion is the cor- 

 rect one. For observation indicates that individually the communal 

 insects are not superior in intellect to the solitary species. Take the 

 ant beyond the range of his hereditary instincts, and he seems a duller 

 creature than the spider. The same conclusion applies to the beaver, 

 which is said to be much duller, so far as individual powers of intellect 



