12

REPRODUCTION OF THE APHIDE.

although among these animals there are males which have wings to fly where they please. Bonnet has made pleasing experiments with them. He received an aphide at the moment of its birth and reared it alone. The latter, without having communication with any other being of its species, produced its little ones; one of these, sequestrated in the same manner, produced a new generation, and Bonnet thus obtained five consecutively, without the assistance of any male, during the space. of five weeks in the course of a summer. He concluded that these nine successive generations had been begotten in the same mother by the male which had fecundated in autumn the egg from which she issued the following spring; for it is very remarkable that the aphide, viviparous in summer, becomes oviparous in autumn.

We should conclude hence that the general laws, thus called because they belong to all genera, are however subordinated to special laws. The aphide, without defense, and of a very delicate structure, destined to serve as food for an infinity of insects and of birds who nourish their little ones on them, ought to reproduce itself in summer not only by the ordinary means of multiplication, but by others more wonderful, without which they would soon be annihilated. It brings into the world, accordingly, its little ones all formed and fecundated to the ninth generation.

As it has in itself no means of emigration, it is blown by the winds upon the nearest leaves, where it reproduces alone its whole posterity; but in autumn, when winter approaches, as it cannot then find any thing to live upon, it is fecundated by the male aphides, who get wings as well as the male ants, and then, although born viviparous, it becomes oviparous, and its little ones, enclosed in eggs, are sheltered from the cold season.

It would be curious to know whether the aphide would not cease to become oviparous in autumn were it kept in a hothouse. However this be, nature employs the most ingenious means in order to favor the multiplication of the feeblest beings.

The cochineal, which is born in Mexico, on the very thick, juicy, and permanent leaf of the cactus, finds there nutriment

THE COCHINEAL INSECT.

13

for its whole life without stirring from its place; thus, it has a trunk of structure so delicate that when once buried in the leaf it cannot be withdrawn without breaking, which would be a mortal wound; in this situation it is fecundated by its male, which develops wings. Become a mother, it lays its eggs around, still fastened to its leaf, which would become at last insufficient to nourish its numerous and impotent progeny, if nature, foreseeing all, had not given to its scarcely hatched little ones a singular means of emigration. It is not the wind which scatters broadcast the growing cochineal insects, like the aphides, which can live upon all sorts of plants; it is the born enemy of all volatile insects which procures a way for them through the air; they communicate from plant to plant upon the threads which spiders weave among the nopals.

All this shows how providence varies its laws in adaptation to the necessities of sensitive creatures, relates them to each other in one general whole, and subordinates them to a moral order. The generations of insects, which offer us so many phenomena, have nothing more extraordinary than that of the commonest plants, which are the most useful, and which reproduce at once in the same year by multiplied flowerings, layers, suckers, and buds.

If the soul of nature thus cares for the wants of insects, those of the human race have a claim proportionally stronger. When the animal has attained the limit of its growth, nature then develops its physical beauty and its moral beauty. (2.) An animal has its full character only after it has attained the age of love. Then birds are feathered in their gayest plumage and warble their songs, while the bull strikes with his horn, the horse races through the pastures, and all animals manifest the instincts, distributed to them by nature. Education in vain endeavors to arrest their course, and to give them the slip by training and feeding. The infant wolf caresses the master who feeds him ; he eats and plays with the dog, whom he seems perfectly to resemble, but hardly has he lengthened his tushes, hardly is the fire of love kindled within him, when he breathes the thirst of blood, his friends become hateful to him; he abandons an

14

LOVE DEVELOPS THE TRUE CHARACTER.

assured subsistence, an asylum, and goes to seek amid the forests a mistress, carnage, and liberty.*

Offensive arms grow, particularly on the males, with their dress; spurs and crests on the cock, horns on the bull; for love and war enter into the conjugal harmony as friendship and enmity into the fraternal harmony; Mars conjugates with Venus. The arms of animals are perfected at the same time as their organs of generation. If these organs are amputated before their development, the body never attains its perfection; no antlers will adorn the head of the stag, no comb that of the cock, no beard darken the chin of man. Their voices become broken and shrill, destruction and decline replace the smiling scenes of love.t Castration does not render domestic animals fitter for the service of man. A true education suffices to develop their instinct of domesticity to the highest degree. The dog, companion of our childhood, has no need of being mutilated in order to attach him to us. Mutilation, which weakens his physical qualities, would alone suffice to deprive him of his moral qualities, and I have, indeed, remarked that those subjected to it were less attached to their masters. I have had a dog who at the season of his loves seemed to double his affection for me.

If castration changes animals so much, both physically and

* TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. The wolf is assuredly one of the most savage of wild beasts, especially the wolf of the eastern hemisphere, yet it is not the less true that, with proper management, the wolf has proved domesticable, and become as strongly and permanently attached to his master as the dog-the savage wolf of France, for example-while in Missouri a gang of trained wolves may be seen at work propelling a mill. St. Pierre may be entirely correct in the principle that the age and season of love develop in each creature its distinctive character; but incorrect in supposing the wolf to be in natural antipathy with man. The wolf is the emblem of the bandit, a character at war with civilized society, yet not the less often gifted with noble and generous qualities, which have caused his revolt from arbitrary and oppressive institutions, but which do not prevent him from appreciating and returning an honorable friendship.

† TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. War is announced as a complement of love in the conjugal harmony, but this applies only to those lower types of character whose sole idea of love is that of selfish, exclusive possession or personal chattelism, holding all spiritual affinities at defiance. This holds alike of human and other animals, but it is not the less true that war and conflict cease, with jealousy, where the higher forms of spiritual communion begin.

RELATIVE SIZE OF THE SEXES.

15

morally, the abuse of sexual pleasure entails other and still more grave deteriorations, which are almost peculiar to man, since it is very rare that animals commit excesses, at least in their natural way of life, unsophisticated by man. Among most animals the male alone is armed. As he has a superabundance of life and of love, so he must have a superabundance of strength to protect his female and his little ones; while the latter is occupied with the cares of incubation and of nourishing her young, he defends her against his rivals, and especially against beasts of prey.

But in this law an apparent contradiction occurs, which is, that although the males of all carnivorous and frugivorous quadrupeds are stronger than the female, it is quite the contrary in birds of prey. "All birds of prey," says Buffon, "have a peculiarity which it is difficult to explain; their males are about a third smaller and weaker than the females, while in quadrupeds, as well as in other birds, the males are well known to be larger and stronger. Among insects, and even fishes, indeed, the females are a little larger than the males, and we clearly see the reason in the prodigious quantity of eggs which they contain, which swell out their bodies."

Buffon here indicates the cause rather than the reason; for why are the females of other animals that carry their young still smaller than their males? Why is the male smaller than the female in birds of prey? Because the force of the bird of prey consists in the lightness of its flight; thus it soars to its highest flights; nature has then made him smaller to render him lighter. Were he larger he would be less agile. The tiercelet is then more apt for flight than his female, and in fact he is more esteemed in falconry. It is the same among fishes, whose motion through the water is like flight, and which are nearly all animals of prey, for they devour each other. In every couple, the lighter is the stronger; as among corsairs the best sailer makes the most prizes.

Volatile insects, whose spongy bodies are in equilibrium with the air, copulate as they fly, the female bearing the male. She needs, therefore, more extended wings and greater size.

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SPECIFIC CHARMS OF EACH SEX.

The male, as a general rule among creatures, surpasses in beauty. Among plants it is the taller; among volatile or swimming animals the lighter; among pasturing quadrupeds the stronger; among animals that fight for prey the most adorned; and the best singer among those who seem to live only to love and to please. Here, as every where, the laws of nature are very wise. The active male is endowed with a superabundant life, which draws him toward the object of his desires, but the passive female needs to be seduced by the beauty or talents of the male before she can find him agreeable. She is compensated for the inferiority of her dress by her superiority in affection, for it is still more happiness to love than to be beloved. There are, however, some species, the male and female of which are equal in qualities. Such, among others, is the ringdove. Both are of the same size, the same plumage; each wears the half of a black circle round its neck, as if they had divided between them the ring of conjugal love, of which they are the symbol.

"The thrush feels the eggs beneath her wings,

And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,

In the nice ear of nature which song is the best ?"

But see how love animates creatures in the spring. It develops their instinct in harmonies more varied than those of their colors, their forms, and their motions. Two individuals of the same species have the same shade, but they have still a different manner of expressing their loves. Every male is conscious of his beauty, or seeks to seduce his female. The peacock displays his tail in a brilliant wheel, the nightingale utters his ravishing notes, the horse races around his companion.

While innocent beings solicit the prizes of love by their talents and efforts to please, destructive animals expect it of victory. The lion, raising his mane, defies his roaring rivals to the combat, and the audacious eagle, sailing high in air, dis- putes with another eagle the limits of his vast empire. The loves of the fecble redouble under the cruelty of their tyrants. They feel the need of uniting. Each couple of lovers seeks an