26 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



There are, however, the following great differences between 

 human societies and those of insects. Man is susceptible of 

 individual attachment, 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 distinguish- 

 ing individuals, unless, as in the instance of the female bee, 

 connected 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 exclama- 

 tions, 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 pecular mode of proceeding, to which 

 it adheres as to the law of its nature, never deviating but 

 under the control of imperious circumstances ; for in par- 

 ticular 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. 1 But they never depart, 

 like man, from the general system ; and, in common with 

 the rest of the animal kingdom, they have no articulate lan- 

 guage. 



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 occasion of glorifying his great Creator ; but in their in- 

 stincts, extraordinary as it may seem, they exhibit a sem- 

 blance 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 scene to which I am eager to introduce you; 

 but the following observations of M. P. Huber on this sub- 



1 Plusieurs d'entre eux (Insectes) savent user de ressources ingenieuses dans 

 les circonstances difficiles : ils sortent alors de leur routine accoutumee, et sem- 

 blent agir d'apres la position dans laquelle ils se trouvent ; c'est la sans doute 

 l'un des phenomenes les plus curieux de Fhistoire naturelle. Hubcr, Nouvelles 

 Observations sur les Abeilles, ii. 1 98. — Compare also ibid. 250. note N. B. 



