PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



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signs, or words : the first two of these kinds may be called 

 natural language, and the last two arbitrary or artificial. 



I have said that perfect societies of insects exhibit the 

 semblance of a nearer approach, both in their principle and its 

 results, to the societies of man himself, because, unless we 

 could perfectly understand what instinct is, and how it acts, 

 we cannot, without exposing ourselves to the charge of 

 temerity, assert that these are precisely the same. 



But when we consider the object of these societies, the 

 preservation and multiplication of the species, and the means 

 by which that object is attained, the united labours and co- 

 operation of perhaps millions of individuals, it seems as if 

 they were impelled by passions very similar to those main- 

 springs of human associations which I have just enumerated. 

 Desire appears to stimulate them — love to allure them — fear 

 to alarm them. They want a habitation to reside in, and 

 food for their subsistence. Does 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 at- 

 tention, and those unremitted 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 relaxation ? That fear pro- 

 duces 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 to repel their attacks, and to construct 

 works of defence. They appear to have besides a common 

 language ; for they possess the faculty, by significative ges- 

 tures and sounds, of communicating their wants and ideas to 

 each other. 1 



1 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, symbolize them. 



