30 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
on this subject are so just and striking, that I cannot re- 
frain from copying them. 
“ The history of insects that live in solitude consists 
of their generation, their peculiar habits, the metamor- 
phoses they undergo; their manner of life under each 
successive form; the stratagems for the attack of their 
enemies, and the skill with which they construct their ha- 
bitation ; but that of insects which form numerous societies, 
is not confined to some remarkable proceedings, to some 
peculiar talent: it offers new relations, which arise from 
common interest; from the equality or superiority of 
rank ; from the part which each member supports in the 
society ;—and all these relations suppose a connexion be- 
tween the different individuals of which it consists, that 
can scarcely exist but by the intervention of language : 
for such may be called every mode of expressing their 
wishes, their wants, and even their ideas, if that name 
may be given to the impulses of instinct. It would be 
difficult to explain in any other way that concurrence of 
all wills to one end, and that species of harmony which 
the whole of their institution exhibits.” 
The great end of the societies of insects being the ra- 
pid multiplication of the species, Providence has em- 
ployed extraordinary means to secure the fulfilment of 
this object, by creating a particular order of individuals 
in each society, which, freed from sexual pursuits, may 
give themselves wholly to labour, and thus abselve the 
females from every employment but that of furnishing 
the society from time to time with a sufficient supply of 
eggs to keep up the population to its proper standard. 
In the case of the Termites, the office of working for 
the society, as these insects belong to an order whose 
