PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 83 



of their new masters. Here the goodness of Providence 

 is conspicuous; which, although it has gifted these crea- 

 tures with an instinct so extraordinary, and seemingly so 

 unnatural, has not made it a source of misery to the ob- 

 jects of it. 



You will here, perhaps, imagine that I have not suf- 

 ficiently taken into consideration the anxiety and priva- 

 tions undergone by the poor neuters, in beholding those 

 foster-children, for which they have all along manifested 

 such tender solicitude, thus violently snatched from them: 

 but when you reflect that they are the common property 

 of the whole colony, and that, consequently, there can 

 scarcely be any separate attachment to particular indi- 

 viduals, you will admit that, after the fright and horror 

 of the conflict are over, and their enemies have retreated, 

 they are not likely to experience the poignant aflSliction 

 felt by parents when deprived of their children; especially 

 when you further consider, that most probably some of 

 their brood are rescued from the general pillage ; or at 

 any rate their females are left uninjured, to restore the 

 diminished population of their colonies, and to supply 

 them with those objects of attention, the larvae, &c. so 

 necessary to that development of their instincts in which 

 consists their happiness. 



But to return to the point from which I digressed. — 

 The negro and miner ants suffer no diminution of happi- 

 ness, and are exposed to no unusual hardships and op- 

 pression in consequence of being transplanted into a 

 foreign nest. Their life is passed in much the same em- 

 ployments as would have occupied it in their native resi- 

 dence. They build or repair the common dwelling; 

 they make excursions to collect food ; they attend upon 



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