ESSAYS AT A REPUBLIC. 2r.9 



Is there not here an idea of property, and of the sacred rights of 

 labour ? 



Where shall they find securities, and how assure a coinniencement 

 of public order? It is curious to know in what waj- the birds have 

 resolved the question. 



Tvi^o solutions presented themselves. The first was that of associ- 

 ation — the organization of a government which should concentrate 

 force, and by the reunion of the weak form a defensive power. The 

 second (but miraculous ? impossible ? imaginative ?) would have been 

 the realization of the aerial city of Aristophanes, — the construction of 

 a dwelling-j)lace guarded by its lightness from the unwieldy brigands 

 of the air, and inaccessible to the approaches of the brigands of the eaith 

 — the hunter, the serpent. 



Tliese two things — the one difficult, the other apparently im- 

 possible — the bird has realized. 



At first, association and goverument. Monarchy is the inferior 

 venture. Just as the apes have a king to conduct each band, several 

 species of birds, especially in dangerous emergencies, appear to follow 

 a chief 



The ant-eaters have a king ; so have the birds of paradise. The 

 tyi-ant, an intrepid little Inrd of exti-aordinary audacity, affords his 

 protection to some larger species, which follow and confide in him. It 

 is assei-ted that the noble hawk, repressing its instincts of prey for 

 certain species, allows the trembling families which trust in his 

 generosity to nestle under and around him. 



But the safest fellowship is that between equals. The ostrich, the 

 penguin, a crowd of .species, unite for this purpose. Several kinds, 

 associating for the i)urpose of travel, form, at the moment of emigi-ation, 

 into tfc.mporary repul)lics. We know the good understanding, the 

 republican gi-avity, the perfect tactic of the storks and cranes. Others, 

 smaller in size or less completely armed — in climates, moreover, Avhere 

 nature, cruelly prolific, engenders mthout pause their formidable foes — 

 place their abodes close together, but do not mingle them, and under a 

 common roof, living in separate partitions, form veritable hives. 



