154 Instinct. 



explain the perfection of the different kinds of in- 

 sects found in such communities as we have described, 

 has no sort of application to the slave Ants. They 

 do their work perfectly, supplementing the defect- 

 ive organization and Instincts of their masters ; but 

 they are neuters, and never reproduce their kind ! 

 and the communities from which they are stolen can- 

 not be affected in any way by the stealing of their 

 young, so as to cause them to produce this remark- 

 able set of slaves just fitted in structure and Instinct 

 to do the work which their captors must have done 

 for them, in order to live. 



While acknowledging the powerful influence of 

 Natural Selection in preserving the fittest, if we 

 were called upon to work out a problem in creation 

 that should make the belief in the origin of species 

 by Natural Selection impossible, we should be un- 

 able to suggest a single change in the relation of 

 the social insects as a whole, that would make a 

 stronger case against such an origin of the species 

 than we have in the relations now existing in many 

 of the communities already considered. These re- 

 lations seem to us more opposed to the theory of 

 origin of species through selection, than any thing 

 found in the physical organization of man even ; 

 and in reference to the human species, Mr. Wallace, 

 one of the originators of the theory, acknowledges 

 that it fails to satisfy him fuUy."^ 



There is no dispute about the facts — no dispute 

 about the fact of variation, no dispute about the 

 important influence of Natural Selection. But that 

 * " Natural Selection," pp. 33^350. 



