AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 381 



is the distinction between reason and instinct? How 

 could the most profound architect have better adapted 

 the means to the end how more dexterously shored up 

 a tottering edifice, until his beams and his props were in 

 readiness ? 



With respect to the operations of the termites in rear- 

 ing their young I have not much to observe. All that 

 is known is, that they build commodious cells for their 

 reception, into which the eggs of the queen are conveyed 

 by the workers as soon as laid, and where when hatched 

 they are assiduously fed by them until they are able to 

 provide for themselves. 



In concluding this subject, it may not be superfluous 

 to advert to an objection which is sometimes thrown out 

 against regarding with any particular sympathy the affec- 

 tion of the lower animals to their young, on the ground 

 that this feeling is in them the result of corporeal sen- 

 sation only, and wholly different from that love which 

 human parents feel for their offspring. It is true that 

 the latter involves moral considerations which cannot 

 have place in the brute creation ; but it would puzzle 

 such objectors to explain in what respect the affection 

 which a mother feels for her new-born infant the mo- 

 ment it has seen the light, differs from that of an insect 

 for its progeny. The affection of both is purely physi- 

 cal, and in each case springs from sensations interwoven 

 by the Creator in the constitution of his creatures. If 

 the parental love of the former is worthy of our tenderest 

 sympathies, that of the latter cannot be undeserving of 

 some portion of similar feeling. 



I am, &c. 



