ature. Let us begin with the familiar
case of the bees. As every one knows, these truly wonderful insects
belong to a highly evolved and complex society, which may be said to
represent a very perfected and extreme socialism. In this society the
vast majority of the population--the workers--are sterile females, and
of the drones, or males, only a very few at the most are ever
functional. Reproduction is carried on by the queen-mother. The lesson
to be drawn from the beehive is that such an organisation has evolved
a quite extraordinary sacrifice of the individual members, notably in
the submergence of the personal needs of sex-function, to its wider
racial end. It is from this line of thought that I wish to consider
it. We have (1) the drones, the fussing males, useless except for
their one duty of fertilisation, and this function only a few actively
perform; thus, if they become at all numerous they are killed off by
the workers, so that the hives may be rid of them; (2) the queen, an
imprisoned mother, specialised for maternity, her sole work the laying
of the eggs, and incapable of any other function; her brain and mind
of the humblest order, she being unable even to feed and care for her
offspring; (3) the great body of unsexed workers, the busy sisters,
whose duty is to rear the young and carry out all the social
activities of the hive.

What a strange, perplexing life-history! What a sacrifice of the sexes
to each other and to the life-force.[35] It seems probable that these
active workers have even succeeded in getting rid of sexual needs. Yet
the maternal instinct persists in them, and has survived the
productive function; it may, indeed, be said to be enlarged and
ennobled, for their affection is not confined to their own offspring,
but goes out to all the young of the association. In this community
one care takes precedence of all others, the care and rearing of the
young. This is the workers' constant occupation; this is the great
duty to which their lives are sacrificed. With them maternal love has
expanded into social affection. The strength of this sentiment is
abundantly proved. The queen-bee, the feeble mother, has the greatest
possible care lavished upon her, and is publicly mourned when she
dies. If through any ill-chance she happens to perish before the
performance of her maternal duties, and then cannot be replaced, the
sterile workers evince the most terrible grief, and in some cases
themselves die.