SOCIETY OP ANIMALS. 



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CHAPTER XI. 



i&Ks j*l >*' 



OF THE SOCIETY OP ANIMALS. 



THE associating principle, from which so many advantages 

 are derived, is not confined to the human species, but extends, 

 in some instances, to every class of animals. 



It is remarked, by Buffon and some other authors, that the 

 state of nature, which had long occupied the attention and 

 researches of philosophers, was rejected by them after the 

 discovery was made. In the estimation of the authors alluded 

 to, the savage state is the state of nature. The first natural 

 condition of mankind is the union of a male and female. 

 These produce a family, who, from necessity, or, in other 

 words, from parental and filial affection, continue together, 

 and assist each other in procuring food and shelter. This 

 family, like most families in established civil societies, feel 

 their own weakness, and their inability to supply their wants 

 without more powerful resources than their feeble exertions. 

 When this wandering and defenceless family accidentally 

 meet with another family in the same condition, nature, it is 

 said, teaches them to unite for mutual support and protec- 

 tion. The association of two families may be considered as 

 the first formation of a tribe or nation. When a number 

 of tribes happen to unite, they only become a larger or more 

 numerous nation. A single pair, it is true, if placed in a situ- 

 ation where plenty of food could be procured without much 

 labor, might, in a succession of ages, produce any indefinite 

 number. This is precisely the situation in which Moses has 

 placed our first parents. He has added another circumstance 

 highly favorable to a speedy population. Instead of the pres- 

 ent brevity of human life, he informs us, that men, in the 

 first periods of the world, lived and propagated several hun- 

 dred years. 



In countries thinly peopled with savages, it is extremely 

 probable, that societies are formed by the gradual union of 

 families and tribes. The increase of power arising from 

 mutual assistance, and a thousand other comfortable circum- 

 stances, soon contribute to cement more firmly the associated 

 members. Some of the arts of life, beside that of hunting, 

 are occasionally discovered either by accident or by the 

 ingenuity of individuals. In this manner, gradual advances 



