But here such silence and such
darkness reign that we have nothing to hope for. There exists, so
to speak, no bench-mark, no means of communication between the
world of insects and our own; and we are perhaps less far from
grasping and fathoming what takes place in Saturn or Jupiter than
what is enacted in the ant-hill or the hive. We know absolutely
nothing of the quality, the number, the extent or even the nature
of their senses. Many of the great laws on which our life is
based do not exist for them: those, for instance, which govern
fluids are completely reversed. They seem to inhabit our planet,
but in reality move in an entirely different world. Understanding
nothing of their intelligence pierced with disconcerting gaps, in
which the blindest stupidity suddenly comes and destroys the
ablest and most inspired schemes, we have given the name of
instinct to that which we could not apprehend, postponing our
interpretation of a word that touches upon life's most insoluble
riddles. There is, therefore, from the point of view of the
intellectual faculties, nothing to be gathered from those
extraordinary creatures who are not, like the other animals, our
"lesser brothers," but strangers, aliens from we know not where,
survivors or percursors of another world.
21
We were at this stage, slumbering peacefully in our
long-established convictions, when a man entered upon the scene
and suddenly showed us that we were wrong and that, for long
centuries, we had over looked a truth which was scarcely even
covered with a very thin veil.
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