so PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



" The history of insects that live in solitude con- 

 sists of their generation, their peculiar habits, the 

 nietamorplioses they undergo ; their manner of life 

 under each successive form ; the stratagems for the 

 attack of their enemies, and the skill with which they 

 construct their habitation : but that of insects which 

 form numerous societies, is not confined to some re- 

 markable proceedings, to some peculiar talent : it oflers 

 new relations, which arise from common interest ; from 

 the equality or superiority of rank ; from the part which 

 each mevnber supports in the society; — and all these 

 relations suppose a connexion between the different in- 

 dividuals of which it consists, that can scarcely exist 

 but by the intervention of language : for such may be 

 called every mode of expressing their wishes, their 

 wants, and even their ideas, if that name may be given 

 to the impulses of instinct. It would be difficult to 

 explain in any other way that concurrence of all wills 

 to one end, and that species of harmony which the whole 

 of their institution exhibits." 



The great end of the societies of insects being the 

 rapid multiplication of the species, Providence has 

 employed extraordinary means to secure the fulfilment 

 of this object, by creating a particular order of indivi- 

 duals in each society, which, freed from sexual pur- 

 suits, may give themselves wholly to labour, and thus 

 absolve the females from every employment but that of 

 furnishing the society from time to tim.e with a sufficient 

 supply of eggs to keep up the population to its proper 

 standard. In the case ofthe Termites, the office of work- 

 ing for the society, as these insects belong to an order 

 whose metamorphosis is semi-complete, devolves upon 



