HOSTILITIES OF ANIMALS. 219 



whom they devour with an almost incredible rapacity. Some 

 of these worms are transformed into flies with two wings, 

 others into flies with four wings, and others into beetles. 

 While in the worm state, one of these gluttonous insects will 

 suck out the vitals of twenty pucerons in a quarter of an hour. 

 Reaumur supplied a single worm with more than a hundred 

 pucerons, every one of which it devoured in less than three 

 hours. 



Beside the general system of carnage produced by the 

 necessity of one animal's feeding upon another, a further 

 source of destruction is found in the wars which man and 

 many other animals wage with their own species. War 

 among mankind, in certain accidental situations of society, 

 may be productive, to particular nations or communities, of 

 beneficial effects. But every advantage derived by war to 

 one nation, is acquired at the expense, and either the partial 

 or the total ruin, of another. If universal peace could be com- 

 pletely established, and if the earth were cultivated to the 

 highest perfection, it is not probable that the multiplication 

 of the human species would ever rise to such a degree as to 

 exceed the quantity of provisions produced by agriculture, 

 and by the breeding of domestic animals, necessary for their 

 existence and Happiness. But as long as men are actuated by 

 ambition, by resentment, and by many other hostile passions, 

 war and animosity, with all their train of bloodshed and ca- 

 lamity, will forever continue to harass and peisecute the 

 human kind. Let us, however, be humble. We cannot 

 unfold the mysteries of Nature ; but we may admire her ope- 

 rations, and submit, with a becoming resignation, to her irre- 

 sistible decrees. The man, if such a man there be, whose 

 strength of mind enables him to observe steadfastly this con- 

 duct, is the only real philosopher. 



But man is not the only animal that makes war with his 

 own species. Quadrupeds, birds, fishes, insects, independ- 

 ently of their appetite for food, occasionally fight and kill 

 each other. On this subject we shall confine ourselves to a 

 few examples derived from the insect tribes. 



A society or a hive of bees consists of a female, of males or 

 drones, and of neuters or working bees. These three kinds 

 continue for some time in the most perfect harmony, and 

 mutually protect and assist each other. The neuters, or work- 

 ing bee-% discover the strongest attachment and affection to 

 the males, even when in their worm state. The neuters are 

 armed with a deadly sting, of which the male is destitute. 



