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America. I would not attempt to justify myself 

 for having treated this object in details that 

 might appear too minute, if they were not con- 

 nected with general physiological views. Our 

 imagination is struck only by what is great; 

 but it belongs to the philosophy of nature, to 

 pause at what is little. We have just seen, that 

 winged insects, collected in society, and conceal- 

 ing in their sucker a liquid that irritates the skin, 

 are capable of rendering vast countries almost 

 uninhabitable. Other insects equally small, the 

 termites (comejen) create obstacles to the pro- 

 gress of civilization in several hot and temperate 

 parts of the equinoctial zone, that are difficult to 

 be surmounted. They devour paper, pasteboard, 

 parchment, with frightful rapidity, destroying 

 records and libraries. Whole provinces of Spa- 

 nish America do not afford one written docu- 

 ment, that dates a hundred years back. What 

 improvement can the civilization of nations 

 acquire, if nothing link the present with the 

 past, if the depositaries of human knowledge 

 must be repeatedly renewed, if the records of 

 genius and reason cannot be transmitted to pos- 

 terity ? 



In proportion as you ascend the tableland of 

 the Andes, these evils disappear. Man breathes 

 a fresh and pure air. The insects no more dis- 

 turb the labors of the day, or the slumbers of the 

 night. Documents can be collected in archives 



