PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 75 



till it has undergone the ordeal of a most thorough inves- 

 tigation. Unfortunately in this country we have not the 

 means of satisfying ourselves by ocular demonstration, 

 since none of the slave-dealing ants appear to be natives 

 of Britain. We must be satisfied, therefore, with weigh- 

 ing the evidence of others. Hear what M. P. Huber, the 

 discoverer of this almost incredible deviation of nature 

 from her general laws, has advanced to convince the world 

 of the accuracy of his statement, and you will, I am sure, 

 allow that he has thrown over his history a colouring of 

 verisimilitude, and that his appeal to testimony is in a 

 very high degree satisfactory. 



" My readers," says he, " will perhaps be tempted to 



believe that I have suffered myself to be carried away 



by the love of the marvellous, and that, in order to impart 



greater interest to my narration, I have given way to an 



inclination to embellish the facts that I have observed. 



But the more the wonders of nature have attractions for 



me, the less do I feel inclined to alter them by a mixture 



of the reveries of imagination. I have sought to divest 



myself of every illusion and prejudice, of the ambition of 



saying new things, of the prepossessions often attached to 



perceptions too rapid, the love of system, and the like. 



And I have endeavoured to keep myself, if I may so say, 



in a disposition of mind perfectly neuter, and ready to 



admit all facts, of whatever nature they might be, that 



patient observation should confirm. Amongst the persons 



whom I have taken as witnesses to the discovery of mixed 



ant-hills, I can cite a distinguished philosopher (Prof. 



Jurine), who was desirous of verifying their existence by 



examining himself the two species united ="," 



Unhcr, 2s7. Jurine, Ifi/mrno/iiacs, 27'^. 



