The Progress of the Race 



perceiving them, longer still without ef- 

 fecting a remedy ? If a being exist whom 

 his destiny calls upon most specially, al- 

 most organically, to live and to organise 

 common life in accordance with pure rea- 

 son, that being is man. And yet see 

 what he makes of it, compare the mis- 

 takes of the hive with those of our own 

 society. How should we marvel, for 

 instance, were we bees observing men, as 

 we noted the unjust, illogical distribution 

 of work amongr a race of creatures that in 

 other directions appear to manifest eminent 

 reason ! We should find the earth's sur- 

 face, unique source of all common life, 

 insufficiently, painfully cultivated by two 

 or three tenths of the whole population ; 

 we should find another tenth absolutely 

 idle, usurping the larger share of the pro- 

 ducts of this first labour; and the remain- 

 ing seven-tenths condemned to a life of 

 perpetual half-hunger, ceaselessly exhaust- 



413 



