Chit'ChaU 499 



Von Os, There is in our village a slater, very fond of keep- 

 ing bees. These useful insects, he says, at breeding-time, 

 sweat prodigiously ; and each lays four eggs at the bottom of 

 each cell : soon after which, he has observed the combs to 

 become full of maggots, which must be carefully destroyed by 

 smoke ! When any one of his numerous family is buried, 

 as the corpse passes out of the house, he carefully loosens 

 every hive, and lifts it up : otherwise, he says, the bees would 

 all die ! 



Dov, The superstitions about bees are numberless. 



Von Os. And yet this poor fellow believes himself inspired 

 with " grace abounding;" and readily undertakes to " spound" 

 as he calls it, any verse read to him, however remotely insu- 

 lated from the context. 



Dov. But what would you think of a gentleman I have the 

 pleasure of visiting in the higher ranks, and whose convers- 

 ation is really a happiness to me, who talks of little young 

 bees ? — and really believes that they grow ! He smiled at 

 me compassionately when I told him that insects never grew 

 when in the perfect state ; but, like Minerva from the brain 

 of Jove, issue full-armed with sharpest weapons, and corslets 

 of burnished green, purple, and gold, in panoply complete : 

 yet is this gentleman a man of genius, wit, and very extensive 

 knowledge. 



Von Os, Not in bees. 



Dov. He was not aware of the numerous species of British 

 bees ; and that several, of a small intrepid sort, will enter the 

 hives, and prey on the treasures of their more industrious 

 congeners. 



Von Os. Reasoning from analogy does not do in natural 

 history. 



Dov. No ; for who, without observation, or the information 

 of others, ever by analogical reasoning could reconcile the 

 enormous difference of size, and colour, in the sexes of some 

 of the humble bees? — or ever discover that in some species 

 there are even females of two sizes ? 



Von Os. But these never grow. 



Dov. Certainly not. Bees, however, hatched in very old 

 cells, will be somewhat smaller : as each maggot leaves a skin 

 behind, which, though thinner than the finest silk, layer after 

 layer, contracts the cells, and somewhat compresses the future 

 bee. 



Von Os. No ignorance is so contemptible as that of what is 

 hourly before our eyes. I do not so much wonder at the 

 fellow who enquired if America was a very large town, as at 

 him who, finding the froth of the Cicada spumaria L. on 



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