l arrive at some state of civilization ethically comparable with
that of the ant:--

"If we have, in lower orders of creatures, cases in which the nature is
constitutionally so modified that altruistic activities have become one
with egoistic activities, there is an irresistible implication that a
parallel identification will, under parallel conditions, take place
among human beings. Social insects furnish us with instances completely
to the point,--and instances showing us, indeed, to what a marvelous
degree the life of the individual may be absorbed in subserving the
lives of other individuals... Neither the ant nor the bee can be
supposed to have a sense of duty, in the acceptation we give to that
word; nor can it be supposed that it is continually undergoing
self-sacrifice, in the ordinary acceptation of that word... [The facts]
show us that it is within the possibilities of organization to produce
a nature which shall be just as energetic in the pursuit of altruistic
ends, as is in other cases shown in the pursuit of egoistic ends;--and
they show that, in such cases, these altruistic ends are pursued in
pursuing ends which, on their other face, are egoistic. For the
satisfaction of the needs of the organization, these actions, conducive
to the welfare of others, must be carried on...

. . . . . . . .

"So far from its being true that there must go on, throughout all the
future, a condition in which self-regard is to be continually subjected
by the regard for others, it will, contrari-wise, be the case that a
regard for others will eventually become so large a source of pleasure
as to overgrow the pleasure which is derivable from direct egoistic
gratification... Eventually, then, there will come also a state in
which egoism and altruism are so conciliated that the one merges in the
other."

VI

Of course the foregoing prediction does not imply that human nature
will ever undergo such physiological change as would be represented by
structural specializations comparable to those by which the various
castes of insect societies are differentiated. We are not bidden to
imagine a future state of humanity in which the active majority would
consist of semi-female workers and Amazons toiling for an inactive
minority of selected Mothers. Even in his chapter, "Human Population in
the Future," Mr. Spencer has attempted no detailed statement of the
physical modifications inevitable to the pr