A LABORIOUS RACE. 
285 
spring-time ! Does it seek to enjoy the sun ? No, it will not allow 
itself a day’s repose. What is its first duty ? To love with a rapid 
and burning love, to go straight to its goal, to seize and take up as 
it passes that vital force which will create an entire people. Love on 
the wing,—no delay,—everything made to bear on the great social 
aim! 
Savage and alone, with its idea and its hope, this mother of the 
future commonwealth creates in the first place its citizens, some thou¬ 
sands upon thousands of labourers. You have already learned that 
among insects every worker is a female. These too are workers, but 
the harsh necessities of toil suppress in them their sex. They love 
with a lofty devotion. The austere virgin looks for no other spouse 
than the community. 
The chain of ardent labour is continued from the mother to her 
daughters. Her task was to beget: it is theirs to build. The fury of 
improvisation is the same in them, however, as it was in her. Accord¬ 
ing to the region and the climate, the tribe, the species, and the work 
vary. Here they will excavate underground the cave in which they 
construct their edifice, isolating it from the soil, and preserving it from 
damp. There they suspend it in the air, and build it of strong coarse 
pasteboard to defy the heaviest rains. To make this paper or paste¬ 
board, they hasten to the forest, where they select some thoroughly 
prepared wood, which has been long soaking, and has been already 
steeped by Nature just as we steep flax. Then within, with a strong 
sharp tooth (for theirs are not the graceful probosces of bees intended 
to kiss flowers), they gnaw, and tear, and loosen, and sever the rebelli¬ 
ous filaments, pound them into pulp as we do the linen rags, and 
knead them with a heavy tongue. After the paste has been mixed 
with a viscous and adhesive saliva, it is spread out into thin layers. 
With teeth closed like a press, the work is completed. The elementary 
substance of the pasteboard is prepared. 
A second industry now commences. The paper manufacturer is 
transformed into a mason. It has not the beaver’s tail to serve as a 
trowel, but with the American wasp a sort of palette on the leg serves 
the same purpose. The operation is not the same here as in Guiana. 
