198 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



strange that, denied all other redress, the poor 

 seek safety in open violence. 



Wealth entices all. In the fancy of the average 

 poor labourer is a vision of perfect communism 

 in which all share equally the profits of their 

 industry. Sometimes the worker broods on this 

 till his better nature and common sense are 

 warped, and then we hear of strikes and intimi- 

 dations, and worse troubles. After the violence 

 has been suppressed by law, the rebel is mocked 

 by famine. Yet such a man will often state many 

 and plausible reasons in favour of "his rights," 

 and will not unfrequently draw comparisons from 

 the animal kingdom to support them. The fact 

 that certain birds and insects live harmoniously in 

 their communities, is a potent cause of Utopian 

 dreams. Gregarious birds and quadrupeds seem 

 to live without fear of their own kind. But theirs 

 is only an " armed neutrality." Only amongst 

 insects do we find what appears to be that com- 

 plete self-abnegation which is the first necessity 

 of communism. The bee does not labour for 

 herself, and the prodigious efforts of the ant gain 

 no rest and hardly any luxury for that minute 



