2l6 FORMULAS OF THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 



§ 4. In Studying the wonderful organization of 

 the poHtles of social Insects like the ants and bees, 

 the political philosopher will be tempted to compare 

 their States with those of men. And at first sight 

 the comparison is greatly to man's disadvantage. 

 The social insects appear to have solved many prob- 

 lems the solution of which would in human States 

 be justly esteemed Utopian. They have solved the 

 great fundamental questions of Feeding and Breed- 

 ing, which underlie all social life: the demons of 

 Hunger and of Love have lost their terrors for the 

 citizen of the City of the Bees. Short of natural 

 calamities such as no foresight can avert, his labour 

 secures to each member sufficient food and shelter 

 (for clothing he does not need). Nor can starvation 

 arise from over- (or under-) population, for population 

 can be accurately regulated, without difficulty and 

 without disturbance. No amatory passions can dis- 

 turb the calm of social amity, for all the citizens are 

 sexless, or at least unsexed. No wonder, then, that 

 the cities of the Ants and Bees have no need of 

 prisons or police, that their discipline displays perfect 

 obedience and perfect harmony, that their members 

 support one another like one united family, that, in 

 a word, their instincts prompt them to do what they 

 ought, and are perfectly harmonious with their social 

 environment. We have here perfect socialism har- 

 monized with all but perfect industry, organization 

 and legality, and there Is no doubt that, as far as 

 form goes, the structural perfection of these societies 

 Is far higher than that of any men have ever attained 

 to. In so far as civilization Is measured by the 

 capacity for social communion and co-operation, the 

 ants and bees are immeasurably our superiors. 



§ 5. Why, then, are they not the masters of our 



