80 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. IV. 



teresting to watch what steps the bees would take 

 in this emergency. Bonnet expected to find that 

 they would have taken the grubs out of the cells, as 

 they do when the combs happen to be greatly de- 

 ranged; but in this he was deceived, and he found 

 that he had by no means correctly calculated the 

 resources which instinct placed at their command. 

 They did not take out a single grub; they left them 

 all in the cells which they occupied : but because 

 the cells were not deep enough, they shut them up 

 with lids somewhat more convex than usual ; and 

 thus found means to add to each cell the depth 

 which it wanted. In this manner the grubs were 

 placed at their ease; no openings were afterward 

 perceived in the lids ; only the interval between the 

 comb and the glass hive was by this means so nar- 

 rowed that the bees could hardly pass through it. 



Some philosophers have maintained that bees and 

 other social insects act merely from sensation ; that 

 their sensorium is so modelled that they are im- 

 pelled by a sensation of pleasure alone to the acts 

 which it is their destiny to perform ; that the suc- 

 cession of their different labours is preordained by 

 the Creator ; and a pleasurable sensation attached 

 to the performance of each task : and that, conse- 

 quently, when they build cells, — when they sedu- 

 lously attend to the young brood, — when they col- 

 lect provisions, these proceedings evince no plan, 

 no affection, no foresight ; but that the enjoyment 

 of an agreeable sensation is the sole influencing 

 motive which leads to the performance of each of 

 these operations. But " surely," observes Kirby 

 " it would be better to resolve all their proceedings 

 at once into a direct impulse from the Creator, than 

 to maintain a theory so contrary to fact, and which 

 militates against the whole history which M. Huber, 

 who adopts this theory from Bonnet, has so ably 

 given of these creatures." That their various em- 

 ployments may afford them agreeable sensations, 



