use to it. The being
incapable of moral weakness is beyond the need of "spiritual guidance."

Only in a vague way can we conceive the character of ant-society, and
the nature of ant-morality; and to do even this we must try to imagine
some yet impossible state of human society and human morals. Let us,
then, imagine a world full of people incessantly and furiously
working,--all of whom seem to be women. No one of these women could be
persuaded or deluded into taking a single atom of food more than is
needful to maintain her strength; and no one of them ever sleeps a
second longer than is necessary to keep her nervous system in good
working-order. And all of them are so peculiarly constituted that the
least unnecessary indulgence would result in some derangement of
function.

The work daily performed by these female laborers comprises
road-making, bridge-building, timber-cutting, architectural
construction of numberless kinds, horticulture and agriculture, the
feeding and sheltering of a hundred varieties of domestic animals, the
manufacture of sundry chemical products, the storage and conservation
of countless food-stuffs, and the care of the children of the race. All
this labor is done for the commonwealth--no citizen of which is capable
even of thinking about "property," except as a res publica;--and the
sole object of the commonwealth is the nurture and training of its
young,--nearly all of whom are girls. The period of infancy is long:
the children remain for a great while, not only helpless, but
shapeless, and withal so delicate that they must be very carefully
guarded against the least change of temperature. Fortunately their
nurses understand the laws of health: each thoroughly knows all that
she ought to know in regard to ventilation, disinfection, drainage,
moisture, and the danger of germs,--germs being as visible, perhaps, to
her myopic sight as they become to our own eyes under the microscope.
Indeed, all matters of hygiene are so well comprehended that no nurse
ever makes a mistake about the sanitary conditions of her neighborhood.

In spite of this perpetual labor no worker remains unkempt: each is
scrupulously neat, making her toilet many times a day. But as every
worker is born with the most beautiful of combs and brushes attached to
her wrists, no time is wasted in the toilet-room. Besides keeping
themselves strictly clean, the workers must also keep their houses and
gardens in faultless order, for