ANTS AND THEIR HELPLESS CHILDREN. 301 
zens. This we shall not find to any extent among 
the invertebrata or animals without back-bones, which 
are those we have dealt with in this book. Among 
the higher mollusca we find something like maternal 
care in the cuttle-fish ; and the scorpion and earwig 
care for their young. But even among insects the 
large majority never live to see their children born, 
and those which do generally leave the care of them 
to others. We must turn for the development of 
fuller sympathy to that other branch, the key-note of 
whose existence is the relation of parents to child- 
ren, of family love. If at a future time we are able 
to trace out the history of the vertebrate animals, it 
will be our great interest to watch the rise of this 
higher feeling. Then we may perhaps learn that 
the " struggle for existence," which has taught the 
ant the lesson of self-sacrifice to the community, is 
also able to teach that higher devotion of mother to 
child, and friend to friend, which ends in a tender 
love for every living being, since it recognises that 
mutual help and sympathy are among the most 
powerful weapons, as they are also certainly the most 
noble incentives, which can be employed in fighting 
the battle of life. 
