Eimer 071 Growth and Inheritance 433 



[on of honey has become mechanical, that the bees no longer reason 

 msciously in performing this labour, yet we must assume that 

 mginally they began to collect honey from reflection and reasoning ; 

 )r otherwise they would never have come to do so mechanically.' 



The application of his principles speedily follows. He 

 lays it down ^ that the system he advocates — his ideal — 



' is the most uncompromising opponent of that confused idea of 

 freedom so injurious to the common good which claims unlimited 

 independence for the individual.' 



' Unlimited independence ' is, of course, absurd and im- 

 possible, but his ideal is in reality no less hostile to limited 

 freedom also, and w^ould reduce the rational human being to 

 a mere animated machine. He continues : — 



'It [his ideal] takes in some sense the social life of the bees for 

 f its model, in which the work of the individual for the community 

 ' has become automatic action.' 



; This would indeed be a glorious prospect for mankind — 



a truly noble goal to strive after: to become a crowd of 

 automata, utterly devoid of both intelligence and goodwill ; 

 but co-operating and interacting so as to nourish themselves 

 and breed most effectively. The last rudiments of intelli- 

 gence or benevolence having been annihilated by an ever-in- 

 creasing complexity of mere reflex action, the social machine 

 working with continually -increasing ofiiciency may persist 



^ till the inevitable annihilation, to be produced by the gradual 

 dissipation of energy, puts a final end (none too soon) to the 

 whole mass of most efficiently co-operating idiots. 



We have so recently considered ^ the question of the 



. essential difference of kind which exists between the mind of 



1 P. 434. 



2 See ante, pp. 289-314, also the Edinburgh Review for October 1889, on the 

 * Origin of the Intellect,' especially pp. 359-372. Since the publication of 

 that article we have published a work entitled, The Origin of Human 

 Reaso7i, wherein the distinctions to which we have briefly adverted are 

 brought out distinctly and at full length. 



VOL. II. 2 E 



