2 THE LIFE AND LOVE OF THE INSECT 



which, nevertheless, the maternal foresight knows quite 

 well. One becomes a manufacturer of cotton goods and 

 mills cotton-wool bottles ; another sets up as a basket- 

 maker and weaves hampers out of scraps of flowers ; 

 a third turns mason and builds rooms of cement and 

 domes of road-metal ; a fourth starts a pottery-works, in 

 which the clay is kneaded into shapely vases and jars 

 and bulging pots ; yet another adopts the calling of a 

 pitman and digs mysterious warm, moist passages under- 

 ground. A thousand trades similar to ours and often 

 even unknown to our industrial system are employed in 

 the preparation of the abode. Next come the victuals 

 of the expected nurslings : piles of honey, loaves of pollen, 

 stores of preserved game, cunningly paralyzed. In such 

 works as these, having the future of the family for their 

 exclusive object, the highest manifestations of the instinct 

 are displayed under the impulse of maternity. 



In the rest of the entomological order, the mother's 

 cares are generally very summary. In most cases, they 

 are confined to the laying of the eggs in favourable spots, 

 where the grub can find a bed and food at its own risk and 

 peril. Where education is so rustic, talents are super- 

 fluous. Lj'^curgus banished the arts from his republic, as 

 enervating. In like manner, the higher inspirations of 

 the instinct are banished among insects brought up in 

 Spartan simplicity. The mother neglects the gentle 

 cares of the cradle ; and the prerogatives of the intellect, 

 the best of all, diminish and disappear, so true is it that 

 for the animal, even as for ourselves, the family is a source 

 of perfection. 



While the Hymenoptera, so extremely thoughtful of 

 their progeny, fill us with wonder, the others, which aban- 

 don theirs to the chances of good luck or bad, must seem 



