PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 305 



not this look as if desire were the operating cause, which induces them to 

 unite their labours to construct the one and provide the other ? Their 

 nests contain a numerous family of helpless brood. Does not love here 

 seem to urge them to that exemplary and fond attention, and those un- 

 remitted and indefatigable exertions manifested by the whole community 

 for the benefit of these dear objects ? Is it not also evidenced by their 

 general and singular attachment to their females, by their mutual caresses, 

 by their feeding each other, by their apparent sympathy with suffering 

 individuals and endeavours to relieve them, by their readiness to help 

 those that are in difficulty, and finally by their sports and assemblies for 

 relaxation ? That fear produces its influence upon them seems no less 

 evident, when we see them agitated by the approach of enemies, endeavour 

 to remove what is most dear to them beyond their reach, unite their efforts 

 to repel their attacks, and to construct works of defence. They appear to 

 have besides a common language; for they possess the faculty, by signifi- 

 cative gestures and sounds, of communicating their wants and ideas to each 

 other. 1 



There are, however, the following great differences between human 

 societies and those of insects. Man is susceptible of individual attach- 

 ment, which forms the basis of his happiness, and the source of his purest 

 and dearest enjoyments : whereas the love of insects seems to be a kind of 

 instinctive patriotism that is extended to the whole community, never 

 distinguishing individuals, unless, as in the instance of the female bee, cou^ 

 nected with that great object. 



Man also, endowed with reason, forms a judgment from circumstances, 

 and by a variety of means can attain the same end. Besides the language 

 of nature, gestures, and exclamations, which the passions produce, he is 

 gifted with the divine faculty of speech, and can express his thoughts by 

 articulate sounds or artificial language. Not so our social insects. 

 Every species has its peculiar mode of proceeding, to which it adheres as 

 to the law of its nature, never deviating but under the control of impe- 

 rious circumstances ; for in particular instances, as you will see when I 

 come to treat of their instincts, they know how to vary, though not very 

 materially, from the usual mode. 3 But they never depart, like man, from 

 the general system ; and, in common with the rest of the animal kingdom, 

 they have no articulate language. 



Human associations, under the direction of reason and revelation, are 

 also formed with higher views, I mean as to government, morals, and 

 religion : with respect to the last of these, the social insects of course can 

 have nothing to do, except that by their wonderful proceedings they give 

 man an occasion of glorifying his great Creator ; but in their instincts, ex- 

 traordinary as it may seem, they exhibit a semblance of the two former, 

 as will abundantly appear in the course of our correspondence. 



I shall not detain you longer by prefatory remarks from the amusing 



1 It is not here meant to be asserted that insects are actuated by these passions 

 in the same way that man is, but only that in their various instincts they exhibit 

 the semblance of them, and, as it were, symbolise them. 



2 " Plusieurs d'entre eux (Insectes) savent user de ressources ingenieuses dans les 

 circonstances dilficiles : ils sortent alors de leur routine accoutume'e, et semblent 

 agir d'apres la position dans laquelle ils se trouvent ; c'est 15- sans doute 1'un des 

 phe'nomenes les plus curieux de Thistoire naturelle." Huber, Nouvelles Observations 

 sur les Abeilles, ii. 198. Compare also ibid. 250. note ST. B. 



X 



