130 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



It is not, however, simply a record of the triumph of brute 

 force. Intelligence is everywhere guiding the operations of 

 these unconscious, or possibly conscious, agents. The great 

 interest in studying the habits of insects results from this 

 fact of the immanence of mind in the animal world. Insects 

 and animals generally are not mere "animated machines," 

 with a "blind instinct" alone, operating under the rule of 

 so-called inflexible physical laws; for these very " laws," as 

 we call them, are in a state of unstable equilibrium. There 

 was a time, before life originated, when the world was form- 

 ing by the agency of cosmical laws; the biological laws 

 became developed with the rise of animal and plant life. 

 The laws of life, the processes of evolution, have changed 

 and become more complex, as forms of life beginning with 

 the Vibrios, Moners and Amoebas became differentiated into 

 the grand groups of the animal and vegetable kingdom. 



So the life of the individual, of the species, of the animal 

 world collectively, is a long record of feats of strength, of 

 mere animal courage opposed to cunning, skill and sagacity. • 

 The strong are saved by their size and strength, while on 

 the other hand, as in the parasitic species, the very weakness 

 of the weak is often their defence. In past ages insects 

 were gigantic and low in intelligence, judging by their sur- 

 viving relations ; while the insects of the present day, as a 

 rule, have smaller, more compact bodies, with their appen- 

 dages more under the control of their intelligence. The 

 most fitting have survived. The families and orders of the 

 Neuroptera which are least numerous at the present day are 

 those which have succumbed in this struggle for existence. 

 The Hymenoptera and beetles comprise the most intelligent 

 of insects, and they are, perhaps, the most numerous in 

 species. 



Had one been born in the Silurian period he would be 

 excused for being a materialist of the Biichner school, but 

 man of the Quaternary period, i.e., of the present day, who 



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