SOCIETY OF ANIMALS. 241 



which have been called proper and improper. 1. Proper 

 Societies comprehend all those animals which not only live 

 together in numbers, but carry on certain operations which 

 have a direct tendency to promote the welfare and happiness 

 of the community. 2. Improper Societies include all those 

 animals which herd together, and love the company of each 

 other/without carrying on any common operation.} 



1. Proper Societies. It is almost needless to remark that 

 man holds the first rank in animal associations of this kind. 

 If men did not assist each other, no operation of any magni- 

 tude, or which could show any great superiority of talents 

 above those of the brute creation, could possibly be effected. 

 A single family, or even a few families united, like other car- 

 nivorous animals, might hunt their prey, and procure a 

 sufficient quantity of food. They might, like the bear, lodge 

 in the cavities of trees ; they might occupy natural caves in 

 the rocks ; they might even build huts with branches of trees 

 and with turf, and cement these gross materials with clay. 

 This lowest and most abject view of human nature is not ex- 

 aggerated. It were to be wished that this grovelling condi- 

 tion of mankind were fictitious, and that, in many regions of 

 the globe, it did not, at this moment, exist. These operations 

 of men, when only acquainted with the mere rudiments of . 

 society, indicate parts little superior to those of- the brutes. 

 Man, even in his most uninformed state, possesses the capacity 

 for every species of knowledge arid every exertion of genius. 

 But it may be cherished, expanded, and brought gradually to 

 perfection. It is by numerous and regularly-established so- 

 cieties alone, that such glorious exhibitions of human intellect 

 can be produced. What is the hut of a savage, when com- 

 pared to the palace of a prince? or what his canoe, when 

 compared to a first-rate ship of war ? 



Next to the intelligence exhibited in human society, that of - 

 the beavers is the most conspicuous. Their operations in 

 preparing, fashioning, and transporting the heavy materials 

 for building their winter habitations, as formerly remarked, 

 are truly astonishing ; and, when we read their history, we 

 are apt to think that we are perusing the history of man in a 

 period of society not inconsiderably advanced. It is only by 

 the united strength and cooperation of numbers, that the 

 beavers could be enabled to produce such wonderful effects ; 

 for, in a solitary state, as they at present appear in some 

 northern parts of Europe, the beavers are timid and stupid 

 animals. They neither associate, nor attempt to construct 

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