SOCIETY OP ANIMALS. 343 



each individual is stimulated to act in this manner by its own 

 motives, and no general effect is produced by mutual exertions. 



In proper societies, each individual not only attends to his 

 own preservation and welfare, but all the members cooperate 

 in certain laborious offices, which produce many common ad- 

 vantages, that could not otherwise be procured. In some 

 societies, the general principle of association and of mutual 

 labor is purely instinctive, though, in many cases, individuals 

 Inarn. by observation and experience, to modify or accommo- 

 date this general principle according to particular accidents 

 or circumstances ; some examples of which have already been 

 given in the chapter upon instinct. 



The insect tribes furnish many instances of proper societies. 

 The honey-bees not only labor in common with astonishing 

 assiduity and art, but their whole attention and affections 

 seem to centre in the person of the queen or sovereign of the 

 hive. She is the basis of their association and of all their 

 operations. When she dies by any accident, the whole commu- 

 nity are instantly in disorder. All their labors cease. No new 

 cells are constructed. Neither honey nor wax is collected. 

 Nothing but perfect anarchy prevails, till a new queen or 

 female is obtained. The government or society of bees is 

 more of a monarchical than of a republican nature. The 

 whole of the members of the state seem to respect and to be 

 directed by a single female. This fact affords a strong in- 

 stance of the force and wisdom of nature. The female alone 

 is the mother of the whole hive, however numerous. With- 

 out her, the species could not be continued. Nature, there- 

 fore, has endowed the rest of the hive with a wonderful 

 affection to their common parent. For the reception of her 

 eggs, nature impels them to construct cells, and to lay up 

 stores of provisions for winter subsistence. These operations 

 proceed from pure instinctive impulses. But every instinct 

 necessarily supposes a degree of intellect, a substratum to be 

 acted upon, otherwise no impulse could be felt, and, of course, 

 no action nor mark of intelligence could possibly be produced. 

 That the intelligence, the government, and the sagacity 

 of bees have been frequently exaggerated, and as frequently 

 misunderstood, no real philosopher, or natural historian, will 

 pretend to deny. But to refuse to believe them possessed of 

 any portion of intelligence, and to refer all their wonderful 

 operations to a mere mechanical impulse, as is done by 

 Buffon, is equally opposed to the dictates of common sense 

 and of sound philosophy, i 



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