I will conclude this chapter by quoting some remarks of Sir John Lubbock as to the ill effects which the institution of slavery exercises, with ants as with men, upon the character of the slave-holder. “These four genera,” he says, “offer us every gradation from lawless violence to contemptible parasitism. _Formica sanguinea_, which may be assumed to have comparatively recently taken to slave-making, has not, as yet, been materially affected. _Polyergus_, on the contrary, already illustrates the lowering tendency of slavery. They have lost their knowledge of art and their natural affection for their young! They are, however, bold and powerful marauders. In _Strongylognathus_ the enervating influence of slavery has gone further, and told even on the bodily strength. They are no longer able to capture their slaves in fair and open warfare. Still, they retain a semblance of authority, and, when roused, will fight bravely, though in vain. In _Anergates_, finally, we come to the last scene of this sad history. We may safely conclude that in distant times their ancestors lived, as so many ants do now, partly by hunting, partly on honey; that by degrees they became bold marauders, and gradually took to keeping slaves; that for a time they maintained their strength and agility, though losing, by degrees, their real independence, their arts, and even many of their instincts; that gradually even their bodily force dwindled away under the enervating influence to which they had subjected themselves, until they sank to their present degraded condition—weak in body and mind, few in numbers, and, apparently, nearly extinct, the miserable representatives of far superior ancestors, maintaining a precarious existence as contemptible parasites of their former slaves.”[55] Since, however, in all these cases the masters are still truly served by their slaves, who make them comfortable, and have no more sense of their degradation than they themselves have, an answer might be made to these moralisings. However various the masks behind which true motives lie hid, happiness, diversely conceived of, is the one end and aim of all. Does it, then, really much matter by what means it is attained? Till we can show that these slave-holding ants have become less and less happy, we are only tilting at shadows, and an _Anergates_ might very well say, in regard to the above view, “Tut, prut, drop your heroics. I am very comfortable; these strong fellows work for me. I like not working, and what I am I wish to be.” ----- Footnote 51: It appeared, I think, originally in the _Bombay Journal_ and is reproduced in one of the leading entomological magazines. Footnote 52: Darwin, Origin of Species, pp. 216, 217, 218. Footnote 53: Rev. Farren White, Ants and their Ways, pp. 177-9. Footnote 54: Lubbock, Ants, Bees, and Wasps, pp. 87-9. Footnote 55: Rev. Farren White, Ants and their Ways, pp. 177-9.