the true nature of Instinct. 25 



to carry it up, it avails itself of the channel made by the falling 

 stone, as a road, against the sides of which it can support and di- 

 rect its load in the ascent. Stationed at the bottom of its little pit, 

 if an Ant should stumble over the margin it hastens the descent and 

 capture of its prey by the fall of little loads of sand which it jerks 

 in quick succession upon the escaping insect.* All this however is 

 surpassed by the Termites, whose nests are formed of clay, and are 

 as large as huts, being generally of no less a height than 12 feet, 

 and broad in proportion, and which when in clusters resemble an 

 Indian village, and may at a distance be mistaken for one. The 

 interior of one of these structures presents a most surprising skill 

 and intelligence, both in the construction and appropriation. The 

 apartments, avenues, and communications, consisting of vaulted 

 chambers, built of various materials, galleries constructed spirally 

 for the facility of ascent, arches or bridges of communication said 

 to be projected, not excavated, are appropriated for royal and 

 other apartments, nurseries, magazines, &c. No one can surely 

 contemplate the gigantic, and at the same time scientific, operations 

 of these wonderful creatures, — which yet are scarcely the fourth of 

 an inch in length, — without feeling struck by the manifestation of 

 an agency far above the discrimination of the subjects in whose ac- 

 tions it is presented, and whose economy is justly characterized as 

 " a miracle of nature."+ 



But the operations of an intelligence in the conduct of the insect 

 race, superior to the conscious faculties of the creature, is made 

 still more manifest by its appearance not only in what has been 

 called blind instinct, — which term itself rightly interpreted, must 

 imply the existence of controling influences, — but also by its de- 

 velopement in strictly contingent acts, affording evidences of the 

 same intelligent design and adaptation, in agreement with what 

 such particular circumstances require. That such do really occur 

 the following extract will satisfactorily demonstrate. 



" In the course of his ingenious and numerous experiments M. 



Huber put under a bell glass about a dozen humble bees without 



any store of wax, along with a comb of about ten silken cocoons so 



unequal in height that it was impossible the mass should stand 



* Kirby and Spence, vol. i, p. 429. f Ibid. vol. i, p. 513. 



