IN REPUBLICS. 349 
That family whose colouring is more 
brilliant, lives by carnage and rapine: its 
empire extends over every insect it can 
pierce with its sting, and every kind of 
fruit that its teeth enable it to pene- 
trate; its dwelling, like to a balloon, 
is sometimes suspended in the air, from 
the branches of a tree; at another time, 
resembles a fortress, of which nothing 
indicates the existence without, hidden 
in the earth, and tenanted by a highly 
dreaded race. 
At length come those colonies which 
cover the surface of the earth, and whose 
republics are so numerous, that the globe 
would not suffice them, had not Nature 
set just limits to their production. A 
multitude of insects become their prey. 
The small size of the individuals is 
compensated by their number ; but force 
is not their principal reliance. Neither 
the flowers nor fruits furnish them with 
their ordinary food; this is the object of 
a taste more refined. ‘The colonies of 
which we are nowspeaking, go and collect 
