348 INSECTS THAT LIVE 
strength, usefulness, and even ferocity, 
impose upon our judgment ; let us sup- 
pose for a moment, that man himself did 
not exist, and let us see what part these 
different colonies would then act upon 
this globe, (whose members are associated 
for one common interest, ) in the midst of 
that crowd of isolated beings, which dis- 
play only a limited instinct, having habi- 
tudes rather than manners, subjected to 
rules rather than laws, and unconscious 
of either country or family. 
In the first rank would appear those 
societies of industrious flies, which are 
established in hollow trees, and in the 
crevices of our rocks: they feed upon 
the nectar of flowers, and secrete honey 
and wax; they never employ their arms 
but to defend their country, the treasures 
they have accumulated, and the young 
they are rearing; the outside of their 
habitation presents nothing grand or 
imposing, but the interior is formed upon 
a regular plan, uniting elegant proportions 
with the most rigid ceconomy. 
