ery sure of not being able to answer it.
But natural economy may have decided the matter. In many forms of life,
the female greatly exceeds the male in bulk and in energy;--perhaps, in
this case, the larger reserve of life-force possessed originally by the
complete female could be more rapidly and effectively utilized for the
development of a special fighting-caste. All energies which, in the
fertile female, would be expended in the giving of life seem here to
have been diverted to the evolution of aggressive power, or
working-capacity.]

Of the true females,--the Mothers-Elect,--there are very few indeed;
and these are treated like queens. So constantly and so reverentially
are they waited upon that they can seldom have any wishes to express.
They are relieved from every care of existence,--except the duty of
bearing offspring. Night and day they are cared for in every possible
manner. They alone are superabundantly and richly fed:--for the sake of
the offspring they must eat and drink and repose right royally; and
their physiological specialization allows of such indulgence ad
libitum. They seldom go out, and never unless attended by a powerful
escort; as they cannot be permitted to incur unnecessary fatigue or
danger. Probably they have no great desire to go out. Around them
revolves the whole activity of the race: all its intelligence and toil
and thrift are directed solely toward the well-being of these Mothers
and of their children.

But last and least of the race rank the husbands of these Mothers,--the
necessary Evils,--the males. They appear only at a particular season,
as I have already observed; and their lives are very short. Some cannot
even boast of noble descent, though destined to royal wedlock; for they
are not royal offspring, but virgin-born,--parthenogenetic
children,--and, for that reason especially, inferior beings, the chance
results of some mysterious atavism. But of any sort of males the
commonwealth tolerates but few,--barely enough to serve as husbands for
the Mothers-Elect, and these few perish almost as soon as their duty
has been done. The meaning of Nature's law, in this extraordinary
world, is identical with Ruskin's teaching that life without effort is
crime; and since the males are useless as workers or fighters, their
existence is of only momentary importance. They are not, indeed,
sacrificed,--like the Aztec victim chosen for the festival of
Tezcatlipoca, and allowed a honeymoon o