PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 27 



drawn closer together, and unite more intimately for de- 

 fence against some common enemy, and to raise works 

 of munition that may resist his attack. 



The main instrument of association is language, and 

 no association can be perfect where there is not a com- 

 mon tongue. The origin of nationality was difference of 

 speech : at Babel, when tongues were divided, nations 

 separated. Language may be understood in a larger 

 sense than to signify inflections of the voice, it may well 

 include all the means of making yourself understood by 

 another, whether by gestures, sounds, signs, or words : 

 the two first of these kinds may be called natural lan- 

 guage, and the two last arbitrary or artificial. 



I have said that perfect societies of insects exhibit the 

 semblance of a nearer approach, both in their principle 

 and its results, to the societies of man himself, because, 

 unless we could perfectly understand what instinct is, 

 and how it acts, we cannot, without exposing ourselves 

 to the charge of temerity, assert that these are precisely 

 the same. 



But when we consider the object of these societies, the 

 preservation and multiplication of the species ; and the 

 means by which that object is attained, the united la- 

 bours and co-operation of perhaps millions of indivi- 

 duals, it seems as if they were impelled by passions very 

 similar to those main-springs of human associations, 

 which I have just enumerated. Desire appears to sti- 

 mulate them love to allure them fear to alarm them. 

 They want a habitation to reside in, and food for their 

 subsistence. Does not this look as if desire were the 

 operating cause, which induces them to unite their la- 

 bours to construct the one and provide the other ? Their 



