VIRILE SENTIMENT 133 



may perhaps be a little surprised that Biology 

 should be undertaking in so explicit and coura- 

 geous a way to teach Metaphysics ; l^ut they will be 

 pleased to have its help in the defence of a Nature 

 which includes earthquakes, butcher-birds, keas, 

 the typhoid bacillus, and the tsetse fly. We accept 

 as benign all processes in which these factors are 

 concerned. The difficulty only enters when we 

 have to distinguish the natural from the unnatural 

 processes in the affairs of human society. Studying 

 animal societies, we find that mortal combats 

 between jealous wooers, and the careful nursing by 

 ants of the larvae of beetles which will presently 

 devour the baby ants, and the extermination of 

 cattle by the bite of an insect, are all natural and 

 therefore admirable events. The moral for us 

 would seem to be that we should make haste to 

 remove such flagrant interferences with nature as 

 are found in the main drainage system and the 

 organisation of the metropolitan police. Accept- 

 ance of destiny is found purest in that mother who 

 refuses to alter her child's environment to defeat 

 scarlet fever or concussion of the brain. 



Seriously, what is this Nature which includes 

 and justifies the doings of all animals but man ? 

 which renders infallible all instincts and aspirations 

 but his ? Where is this benign and perfect force 

 which we have only to make way for ? and how is 

 this making way, in practical politics, to be brought 

 about ? 1 can find no profit in this way of using 

 words. 



