PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 29 



Man also, endowed with reason, forms a judgement 

 from circumstances, and by a variety of means can at- 

 tain the same end. Besides the language of nature, ges- 

 tures, and exclamations, which the passions produce, 

 he is gifted with the divine faculty of speech, and can 

 express his thoughts by articulate sounds or artificial 

 language. — Not so our social insects. Every species 

 has its peculiar mode of proceeding, to which it adheres 

 as to the law of its nature, never deviating but under the 

 control of imperious circumstances; for in particular in- 

 stances, as you will see when I come to treat of their in- 

 stincts, they know how to vary, though not very mate- 

 rially, from the usual mode*. But they never depart, 

 like man, from the general system; and, in common with 

 the rest of the animal kingdom, they have no articulate 

 language. 



Human associations, under the direction of reason 

 and revelation, are also formed with higher views, — I 

 mean as to government, morals, and religion : — with re- 

 spect to the last of these, the social insects of course can 

 have nothing to do, except that by their wonderful pro- 

 ceedings they give man an occasion of glorifying his 

 great Creator ; but in their instincts, extraordinary as 

 it may seem, they exhibit a semblance of the two former, 

 as will abundantly appear in the course of our corre- 

 spondence. 



I shall not detain you longer by prefatory remarks 



* Plusieurs d'entre eux (Iiisectes) savent user de ressoiirces inge- 

 nieuses dans les circonstances difBciles : ils sortent alors de leur rou- 

 tine accoutumee et semblent agir d'apres la position danslaquelle ils 

 se trouvent; c'est la sans doute I'un des phenomenes les plus cu- 

 rieux de I'histoire naturelle. Huber, Nouvelles Observations sur les 

 Abeil/i'S, ii. 198. — Compare also ibid. 260, note N. B. 



