58 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



lowed by a history of the still more interesting proceed- 

 ings of the "iioorkers, I think you will not regret the ex- 

 change. I shall show these to you in many different views, 

 under each of which you will find fresh reason to admire 

 them and their wonderful instincts. My only fear will 

 be lest you should think the picture too highly coloured, 

 and deem it incredible that creatures so minute should 

 so far exceed the larger animals in wisdom, foresight, 

 and sagacity, and make so near an approach in these 

 respects to man himself. — My facts, however, are de- 

 rived from authorities so respectable, that I think they 

 will do away any bias of this kind that you may feel in 

 your mind ^. 



I need not here repeat what I have said in a former 

 letter concerning the exemplary attention paid by these 

 kind foster-mothers to the young brood of their colonies ; 

 nor shall I enlarge upon the building and nature of their 

 habitations, which have been already noticed ^ : — but, 

 without either of these, I have matter enough to fill the 

 rest of this letter with interesting traits, while I endeavour 

 to teach you their language, to develop their affections 

 and passions, and to delineate their virtues ; — while I 

 show them to you when engaged in war, and enable you 

 to accompany them both in their military expeditions and 

 in their emigrations, — while I make you a witness of 



* It may be thought that many of the anecdotes related in the fol- 

 lowing history of the proceedings of neuter ants could not have been 

 observed by any one, unless he had been admitted into an ant-hill ; 

 but it must be recollected that M. P. Huber, from whose work the 

 most extraordinary facts are copied, invented a kind of ant-hive ; so 

 constructed as to enable him to observe their proceedings without 

 disturbing them. 



>> Vol, 1. 47G. 



