VII


But while the facts of insect-biology suggest so much in regard to the
future course of human evolution, do they not also suggest something of
largest significance concerning the relation of ethics to cosmic law?
Apparently, the highest evolution will not be permitted to creatures
capable of what human moral experience has in all areas condemned.
Apparently, the highest possible strength is the strength of unselfishness;
and power supreme never will be accorded to cruelty or to lust. There may
be no gods; but the forces that shape and dissolve all forms of being would
seem to be much more exacting than gods. To prove a "dramatic tendency" in
the ways of the stars is not possible; but the cosmic process seems
nevertheless to affirm the worth of every human system of ethics
fundamentally opposed to human egoism.

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Notes

THE STORY OF MIMI-NASHI-HOICHI
[1] See my Kotto, for a description of these curious crabs.
[2] Or, Shimonoseki. The town is also known by the name of Bakkan.
[3] The biwa, a kind of four-stringed lute, is chiefly used in musical
recitative. Formerly the professional minstrels who recited the
Heike-Monogatari, and other tragical histories, were called biwa-hoshi, or
"lute-priests." The origin of this appellation is not clear; but it is
possible that it may have been suggested by the fact that "lute-priests" as
well as blind shampooers, had their heads shaven, like Buddhist priests.