326 THE NATURAL THEOLOGY OF THE FUTURE, [xm. 



all-embracing charity, at least to the virtues of self- 

 sacrifice and patriotism,* then he will rise towards a 

 higher sphere ; toward that kingdom of God of which 

 it is written : " He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in 

 God, and God in him." 



Whether that be matter of natural theology, I 

 cannot tell as yet. But as for all the former questions 

 all that St. Paul means when he talks of the law, 

 and how the works of the flesh bring men under the 

 law, stern and terrible and destructive, though holy 

 and just and good, they are matter of natural 

 theology; and I believe that on them, as elsewhere, 



* I am well aw|ire what a serious question is opened up in these 

 words. The fact that the great majority of workers among the social 

 insects are barren females or nuns, devoting themselves to the care 

 of other individuals' offspring, by an act of self-sacrifice, and that 

 by means of that self-sacrifice these communities grow large and 

 prosperous, ought to be well weighed just now ; both by those who 

 hold that morality has been evolved from perceptions of what was 

 useful or pleasurable, and by those who hold as I do that morality is 

 one, immutable and eternal. Those who take the former view 

 (confounding, as Mr. Mivart well points out in his Genesis of Species, 

 "material" and "formal" morality) have no difficulty in tracing the 

 germs of the highest human morality in animals ; for self-interest is, 

 in their eyes, the ultimate ground of morality, and the average animal 

 is utterly selfish. But certain animals perform acts, as in the case of 

 working bees and ants, and (as I hold) in the case of mothers working 

 for and protecting their offspring, which at least seem formally 

 moral; because they seem founded on self -sacrifice. I am well aware, 

 I say again, of the very serious admissions which we clergymen should 

 have to make if we confessed that these acts really are that which 

 they seem to be. But I do not see why we should not be as just to 

 an ant as to a human being ; I am ready, with Socrates, to follow 

 the Logos whithersoever it leads ; and I hope that Mr. Mivart will 

 reconsider the two latter paragraphs of p. 196, and let his " thoughts 

 play freely " round this curious subject. Perhaps, in so doing, he 

 may lay his hand on an even sharper weapon than those which lie 

 has already used against the sensationalist theory of morals. 



