Chapter VIII (3)

In the number of those magnificent views of creation, which it is permitted us to observe, we perceive man, so placed in the general scale, that under the guidance of his own genius, and proud, perhaps, of his brilliant faculties, he does not see any of those minute chains by which he is surrounded. If delivered over, in some degree, to himself, he sometimes meets in his institutions, and in his arts, with the laws and proceedings nature has dictated to animals; it amounts to a certain proof of his relation with disposing Intelligence: the works of the latter, however, bear the impress of Infinite Wisdom, and the conceptions of man, the seal of imperfection. In regarding those colonies, which exist at our very feet, and where so much harmony and order prevail, I think, I perceive the Author of nature, tracing with his all-powerful hand, the laws of a republic exempt from abuse, or framing the model of those compound societies, where servitude is allied to a common interest.

The Author of nature has so willed it, that certain ants should associate in their labours other workers of an industrious species, upon whom is to devolve the office of rearing their young, and providing their subsistence; whilst they themselves, abandoned to warlike enterprise, and passing from a state of combat to one of ease, are to enjoy the industry and share the affection and attention of these strange ants. This institution, wisely combined, fulfils every desirable condition. The slaves of the Amazons, carried away in their infancy, perceiving no change in their country, attach themselves to their captors, display their usual natural activity, and, unacquainted with forced labours, and subject to no kind of oppression, have even, as we have seen, a sufficiently extensive authority in the city which has adopted them.

This great trait, in which is displayed unbounded wisdom, in calling to our mind the abuses to which a similar institution is subject, among several civilised nations, induces us to admire the mildness of those laws, by which Providence rules these colonies, of which, she has reserved to herself the entire direction; and shows us, that, in delivering man to his own guidance, she has subjected him to a great and heavy responsibility. If natural history had only served to prove this truth, it would have attained the most dignified end of which the sciences may boast--that of endeavouring to ameliorate the human species, by the examples it lays before us.