"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 futur
e, 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."