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 
yelaxation ? 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 
torepel 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. 
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, con- 
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.? 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 oceasion 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 
_ | 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. 
_* “Plusieurs Wentre eux (Jnsectes) savent user de ressources ingénieuses dans les 
Circonstances difficiles : ils sortent alors de leur routine accoutumée, et semblent 
agir Papres la position dans laquelle ils se trouvent; c’est li sans doute Pun des 
phénomenes les plus curieux de l'histoire naturelle.” Huber, Nouvelles Observations 
Sur les Abeilles, ii, 198,—Compare also ibid. 250. note N. B, 
x 
