114 EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. 



need of them ? Whence arise the stories that we hear 

 of the wisdom of foxes, which hide their prey in differ- 

 ent spots, that they may find it at their need and live 

 upon it for days together ? Or of the subtilty of owls, 

 which husband their store of mice by biting off their 

 feet, so that they cannot run away ? Or of the mar- 

 vellous penetration of bees, which know beforehand 

 that their queen should lay so many eggs in such and 

 such a time, and that so many of these eggs should be 

 of a kind which will develop into drones, and so many 

 more of such another kind as should become neuters ; 

 and who in consequence of this their foreknowledge 

 build so many larger cells for the first, and so many 

 smaller for the second ? " * 



Buffon answers these questions thus : 

 " Before replying to them," he says, " we should make 

 sure of the facts themselves ; are they to be depended 

 upon.? Have they been narrated by men of intelligence 

 and philosophers, or are they popular fables only?" 

 (How many delightful stories of the same character does 

 he not soon proceed to tell us himself). " I am persuaded 

 that all these pretended wonders will disappear, and the 

 cause of each one of them be found upon due examina- 

 tion. But admitting their truth for a moment, and 

 granting to the narrators of them that animals have a 

 presentiment, a forethought, and even a certainty con- 

 cerning coming events, does it therefore follow that 

 this should spring from intelligence ? If so, theirs is 

 assuredly much greater than our own. For our fore- 

 knowledge amounts to conjecture only ; the vaunted 



* Tom. iv. p. 102, 1760. 



