ly observed, when the total
effect of their life and work, with regard to the community, is
gauged--as carefully observed and gauged as the influence of certain
individuals in a colony of ants might be observed and gauged by Sir
John Lubbock--there ought to be no difficulty in deciding whether they
are living for the Organic or for the Spiritual; in plainer language,
for the world or for God. The question of Kingdoms, at least, would be
settled without mistake. The place of any given individual in his own
Kingdom is a different matter. That is a question possibly for ethics.
But from the biological standpoint, if a man is living for the world it
is immaterial how well he lives for it. He ought to live well for it.
However important it is for his own Kingdom, it does not affect his
biological relation to the other Kingdom whether his character is
perfect or imperfect. He may even to some extent assume the outward form
of organisms belonging to the higher Kingdom; but so long as his
reaction upon the world is the reaction of his species, he is to be
classed with his species, so long as the bent of his life is in the
direction of the world, he remains a worldling.

Recent botanical and entomological researches have made Science familiar
with what is termed _Mimicry_. Certain organisms in one Kingdom assume,
for purposes of their own, the outward form of organisms belonging to
another. This curious hypocrisy is practiced both by plants and animals,
the object being to secure some personal advantage, usually safety,
which would be denied were the organism always to play its part in
Nature _in propria persona_. Thus the _Ceroxylus laceratus_ of Borneo
has assumed so perfectly the disguise of a moss-covered branch as to
evade the attack of insectivorous birds; and others of the walking-stick
insects and leaf-butterflies practice similar deceptions with great
effrontery and success. It is a startling result of the indirect
influence of Christianity or of a spurious Christianity, that the
religious world has come to be populated--how largely one can scarce
venture to think--with mimetic species. In few cases, probably, is this
a conscious deception. In many doubtless it is induced, as in
_Ceroxylus_, by the desire for _safety_. But in a majority of instances
it is the natural effect of the prestige of a great system upon those
who, coveting its benedictions, yet fail to understand its true nature,
or decline to bear its profound