LETTER XV. 
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS CONTINUED. 
PERFECT sociETIES. (White Ants and Ants.) 
"THE associations of insects of which my last letter gave 
you a detail, were of a very imperfect kind, both as to 
their object and duration: but those which I am now to 
lay before you exhibit the semblance of a nearer ap- 
proach, both in their principle and its results, to the so- 
cieties of man himself. There are two kindred sen- 
timents, that in these last act with most powerful energy 
—desire and affection—From the first proceed many 
wants that cannot be satisfied without the intercourse, 
aid, and co-operation of others; and by the last we are 
impelled to seek the good of certain objects, and to de- 
light in their society. ‘Thus self-love combines with phi- 
lanthropy to produce the social principle, both desire 
and love alternately urging us to an intercourse with 
each other; and from these in union originate the mul- 
tiplication and preservation of the species. These two 
passions ~are the master-movers in this business; but 
there is a third subsidiary to them, which, though it 
trenches upon the social principle, considered abstract- 
edly, is often a powerful bond of union in separate so- 
