OF NATURAL HISTORY. 391 



as long as men are actuated by ambition, by refentment, and 

 by many other hoftile paffions, war and animofity, with all 

 their train of blood-fhed and calamity, will forever continue 

 to harrafs and perfecute the human kind. Let us, however, 

 be humble. We cannot unfold the myfteries of Nature ; 

 but we may admire her operations, and fubmit, with a becom- 

 ing relignation, to her irreliftible decrees. The man, if fuch 

 a man there be, whofe ftrength of mind enables him to ob-^ 

 ferve fteadfaftly this condudl, is the only real philofopher. 



As formerly remarked, man is not the only animal that 

 makes war with his own fpecies. Quadrupeds, birds, fiflies, 

 infefls, independently of their appetite for food, occafionally 

 light and kill each other. On this fubje£l we fhall confine 

 ourfelves to a few examples derived from the infecl tribes. 



A fociety or hive of bees confifts of a female, of males, 

 and of drones, or neuters. Thefe three kinds continue, for 

 fome time, in the moft perfect harmony, and mutually pro- 

 tect and aflift each other. The neuters, or working bees, 

 difcover the ftrongeft attachment and afFedlion to the males, 

 even when in their worm ftate. The neuters are armed 

 with a deadly fting, of which the males are deftitute. Both 

 are equally produced by the fame mother, and live in the 

 fame family. But, notwithftanding their temporary aiFedlion, 

 there are times when the neuters cruelly maflacre the 

 males. Among the laws of poliflied republics, we lind fome 

 which are extremely barbarous. The Lacedemonians were 

 allowed to kill fuch of tlieir c?hildren as were produced in a 

 defective or maimed ftate, becaufe they would become a bur- 

 den upon the community. The laws of the Chinefe permit 

 adtions equally inhuman. We perhaps know not all the 

 reafons why the neuter bees treat the males with fo much 

 cruelty. There is a time, however, when the males become 

 perfectly ufelefs to the community ; and it is not incurious 

 to remarkj that the general maflacre never commences till 



