288 RAVAGES or THE TEEMITBS. 



this subject too much in detail, were it not connected v.llli 

 general physiological views. Our imagination is struck 

 only by what is great ; but the lover of natural philosophy 

 should reflect equally on little things. We have just seen 

 that winged insects, collected in society, and concealing in 

 their sucker a liquid that irritates the skin, are capable of 

 rendering vast countries almost uninhabitable. Other insects 

 equally small, the termites (comejen),* create obstacles to 

 the progress of civilization, in several hot and temperate 

 parts of the equinoctial zone, that are difficult to be sur- 

 mounted. They devour paper, pasteboard, and parchment 

 with frightful rapidity, utterly destroying records and libra- 

 ries. "Whole provinces of Spanish America do not possess 

 one written document that dates a hundred years back. 

 "What improvement can the civilization of nations acquire if 

 nothing link the present with the past ; if the depositaries 

 of human knowledge must be repeatedly renewed ; if the 

 records of genius and reason cannot be transmitted to 

 posterity ? 



In proportion as you ascend the table-land of the Andes 

 these evils disappear. Man breathes a fresh and pure air. 

 Insects no more disturb the labours of the day or the 

 slumbers of the night. Documents can be collected in 

 archives without our having to complain of the voracity of 

 the termites. Mosquitos are no longer feared at a height 

 of two hundred toises; and the termites, still very frequent 

 at three hundred toises of elevation,* become very rare at 

 Mexico, Santa Fe de Bogota, and Quito. In these great 

 capitals, situated on the back of the Cordilleras, we find 

 libraries and archives, augmented from day to day by the 

 enlightened zeal of the inhabitants. These circumstances, 

 combined with others, insure a moral preponderance to the 

 Alpine region over the lower regions of the torrid zone. If 

 we admit, agreeably to the ancient traditions collected in 

 both the old and new worlds, that at the time of the catas- 

 trophe which preceded the renewal of our species, man 

 descended from the mountains into the plains, we may 

 admit, with still greater confidence, that these mountains, 



* Literally, ' the eaters,' or * the devourers.' 



t There are some at Popayan (height 910 toises; mean temperature 

 18' 7), but they are species that gnaw wood only. 



