5id 'THE PHILOSOPHY 



body and mechanical impulfe. Their reafonings, however, 

 though often ingenious, involve the fubje£l in tenfold obfcur- 

 ity. We can hardly fuppofe that the animals actually fore- 

 fee what is to happen, becaufe, at firft, they have not had 

 even the aid of experience ; and, particularly in fome of the 

 infect tribes, the parents arc dead before their young are 

 produced. Pure inftindts of this kind, therefore, muft be re- 

 ferred to another fource. In a chain of reafoning concern- 

 ing the operations of Nature, fuch is the conftitution of our 

 minds, that we are under the neceility of reforting to an ulti- 

 mate caufe. What that caufe is, it is the higheft prefump^ 

 tion in man to pretend to define. But, though we mufk for- 

 ever remain ignorantof the caufe, we are enabled to trace,and 

 even to underftand, partially, fome of the efFecSls ; and, from 

 thefe e£Fe£ls, we perceive the moft confummate wifdom, the 

 moft elegant and perfecSl contrivances to accomplifli the mul- 

 tifarious and wonderful intentions of Nature. In contemplat- 

 ing the operations of animals, from man down to the feem-^ 

 ingly moll: contemptible infexH:, we are necelTarily compelled 

 to refer them to pure indlindls, or original qualities of mind, 

 "Variegated by Nature according as the neceffities, preferva- 

 ^ion, and continuation of the different fpecies require. Let 

 any man try to proceed a ftep farther, and, however he may 

 deceive himfelf, and flatter his own vanity, he muft find, at 

 $aft, that he is clouded in obfcurity, and that men who have 

 a more correct and unprejudiced mode of thinking will brand 

 him with abfurdity, and of ailing in direct oppofition to the 

 conftitution and frame of the human mind. 



I fhall now give fome examples of the operations of aflb- 

 ciating infefls, who conftrucSt habitations by exerting a com- 

 mon and a mutual labour. 



'f he flcill and dexterity of the honey-bees , difplayed in the 

 conftru'flion of their combs or nefts, have at all times called 

 forth the admiration of mankind. They are compofed of 



