AMONG THE TOILERS 199 



labourer. But all ants, and, speaking generally, 

 all bees, labour. They seem to work voluntarily, 

 and are not overlooked by a lazy employer. We 

 must not hastily conclude, however, that they have 

 no notion of the amount of work they respectively 

 perform, or of leadership in executing it. The 

 hive-bees kill their drones, but it is not alleged 

 that they destroy old and useless workers. In 

 Britain the weather speedily effects the removal 

 of the decayed and ailing. 



If human beings could exhibit that devotion to 

 the good of the community which is noticeable 

 in the ants and bees, then the law might be allowed 

 a free hand in distributing the results of labour, 

 and man might live in a vast commune. But there 

 is one fundamental distinction between the human 

 polity and those of the insects ; the insects work 

 for their brothers and sisters we work for our 

 children. And therein lies the great objection to 

 human communes. 



Malthus showed that misery was the only check 

 to population, and that any race sure of its food 

 tends to increase in numbers till food is scarce, 

 when the struggle for life is renewed. Starvation- 



