350° INSECTS THAT LIVE 
it from certain pacific beings, which live in 
societies, and bestow upon them, uncon- 
strained, the juices they extract from 
plants. These colonies possess the art 
of making themselves understood, of 
assembling these insects in their habita- 
tion, and of defending them against the 
attacks of their enemies. 
Those insects which live in republics, 
yield doubtless to many others in size, 
strength, and swiftness. Nature, in a 
lower: degree, produces’ its’ monsters : 
the spider, dung-chafer,. rove-beetle, - 
scorpion, like so many ferocious beasts; 
retired to their covert, await the passage 
of flies, worms, butterflies, caterpillars, - 
which they attack and destroy, expe+ 
riencing no kind of resistance. Our 
astonishment is again excited at the 
gigantic proportions of those dung and 
stag-beetles, whose peaceable dispositions 
strongly contrast with the arms with 
which they are provided. Here the 
diversity of the production arrests our 
attention; this insect lives in corrupted 
