IN REPUBLICS. 3772 
that certain ants should associate in their 
labours other workers of an industrious 
species, upon whom is to devolve the 
- office of rearing their young, and pro- 
viding their subsistence; whilst they 
themselves, abandoned to warlike enter- 
prise, and passing from a state of combat 
to one of ease, are to enjoy the industry 
and share the affection and attention of 
these strange ants. This institution, 
wisely combined, fulfils every desirable 
condition. ‘The slaves of the Amazons, 
carried away in their infancy, perceiving 
no change in their country, attach them- 
selves to their captors, display their usual 
natural activity, and, unacquainted with 
forced labours, and subject to no kind of 
oppression, have even, as we have seen, 
a sufficiently extensive authority in the 
city which has adopted them. 
This great trait, in which is displayed 
unbounded wisdom, in calling to our 
mind the abuses to which a similar in- 
stitution is subject, among several civi- 
lised nations, induces us to admire the 
mildness of those laws, by which Provi- 
