CHAPTER V 

 TERMITES 



It was the custom, not long ago, to teach the inexperienced 

 that the will can achieve whatever ambition may desire. 

 "Believe that you can, and you can, if only you work hard 

 enough"; this was the subject of many a maxim very en- 

 couraging, no doubt, to the young adventurer, but just as 

 likely to lead to a bench in Union Square as to a Fifth 

 Avenue studio or a seat in the Stock Exchange. 



Now it is the fashion to give us mental tests and voca- 

 tional suggestions, and we are admonished that it is no 

 use trying to be one thing if nature has made us for some- 

 thing else. This is sound advice; the only trouble is the 

 difficulty of being able to detect at an early age the char- 

 acters that are to distinguish a plumber from a doctor, a 

 cook from an actress, or a financier from an entomologist. 

 Of course, there really are differences between all classes 

 of people from the time they are born, and a fine thing 

 it would be if we could know in our youth just what each 

 one of us is designed to become. In the present chap- 

 ter we are to learn that certain insects appear to have 

 achieved this very thing. 



The termites are social insects; consequently in study- 

 ing them, we shall be confronted with questions of con- 

 duct. Therefore, it will be well at the outset to look 

 somewhat into the subject of morality; not, be assured, 

 to learn any of its irksome precepts, but to discover its 

 biological significance. 



Right and wrong, some people think, are general ab- 

 stractions that exist in the very nature of things. They 



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