130 
HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 
It is not, however, simply a record of the triumph of brute 
force. Intelligence is everywhere guiding the operations of 
these unconscious, or possibly conscious, agents. The great 
interest in studying the habits of insects results from this 
fact of the immanence of mind in the animal world. Insects 
and animals generally are not mere “animated machines,” 
with a “blind instinct” alone, operating under the rule of 
so-called inflexible physical laws ; for these very “laws,” as 
we call them, are in a state of unstable equilibrium. There 
was a time, before life originated, when the world was form¬ 
ing by the agency of cosmical laws; the biological laws 
became developed with the rise of animal and plant life. 
The laws of life, the processes of evolution, have changed 
and become more complex, as forms of life beginning with 
the Vibrios, Moners and Amoebas became differentiated into 
the grand groups of the animal and vegetable kingdom. 
So the life of the individual, of the species, of the animal 
world collectively, is a long record of feats of strength, of 
mere animal courage opposed to cunning, skill and sagacity. 
The strong are saved by their size and strength, while on 
the other hand, as in the parasitic species, the very weakness 
of the weak is often their defence. In past ages insects 
were gigantic and low in intelligence, judging by their sur¬ 
viving relations; while the insects of the present day, as a 
rule, have smaller, more compact bodies, with their appen¬ 
dages more under the control of their intelligence. The 
most fitting have survived. The families and orders of the 
Neuroptera which are least numerous at the present day are 
those which have succumbed in this struggle for existence. 
The Hymenoptera and beetles comprise the most intelligent 
of insects, and they are, perhaps, the most numerous in 
species. 
Had one been born in the Silurian period he would be 
excused for being a materialist of the Buchner school, but 
man of the Quaternary period, i.e., of the present day, who 
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