FECUNDATION OF ANTS. 119 
pected they would themselves be the 
voluntary authors of it. Would it 
not appear that nature takes delight in 
sporting with our judgment in the variety 
and superiority of her plans, in the detail 
as well as in the aggregate? We only 
judge from known facts; but nature does 
not follow, and indeed is under no neces- 
sity of following, any invariable rule: 
the fruitful source from which she receives 
her laws knows no limits : every species 
has its own manners, every individual its 
own particular constitution ; hence arise 
the innumerable errors into which we fall, 
fall off like autumnal leaves. This circumstance is 
peculiar to the large sort; for if you confine the 
small ones ever so long, their wings will continue 
fixed, and cannot be separated without some diff- 
culty.”” In another place,he observes, “ the casting 
of their wings is an instance peculiar to the large 
ant-flies. These are to other insects their highest 
decorations, and the want of them lessens their 
beauty and shortens their life. On the reverse, a 
large ant-fly gains by the loss, and is afterwards 
promoted to a throne, and drops these external 
ornaments as emblems of too much levity for a 
sovereign.” — T, 
