28 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



Hiftory of a fingle animal on the Earth ? We find 

 no one fpecies deviating, hke the human, from the 

 laws impofed on it by Nature. Bees, univerfally, 

 live in republics, as they did in the time of EJop. 

 The common fly has always been a vagabond, a 

 herd without any police or reftraint. How comes 

 it that, among thefe, no Lycurgiis has ever yet 

 arifen, to reduce them into order, for the general 

 good ; and to prefcribe to them, as Philofophers 

 tell us the firfb Legiflators among men did, laws 

 didated by their weaknefs, and by the neceffity of 

 uniting in fociety ? 



On the other hand. Whence is it, as Machiavel 

 affirms of Nations pofleffing too much happinefs, 

 that among the canine fpecies, exulting in the fu- 

 periority of their ftrength, no Catiline arifes, to 

 impel his affociates to take advantage of the fecu- 

 rity of their mafteis, and deftroy them at once; 

 no Spartacus to roufe them to liberty by his howl- 

 ing, that they may live as fovereigns of the foreft, 

 they to whom Nature has given arms, courage, 

 and fkill to fubdue, in whole armies, animals the 

 moil formidable ? When fo many trivial laws of 

 Nature are, under our very eyes, unknown, or 

 " mifunderftood, how dare we to aflign thofe which 

 regulate the courfe of the ftars, and which embrace 

 the immenfity of the Univerfe ? 



To 



