The Mason-Wasps 



The theorists, proudly daring, have an 

 answer nowadays for every question; but, 

 as a thousand theoretical views are not 

 worth a single fact, thinkers untrammelled 

 by preconceived ideas are far from be- 

 ing convinced. Problems such as these, 

 whether their scientific solution be possible 

 or not, require an enormous mass of welU 

 established data, to which entomology, de- 

 spite its humble province, can contribute a 

 quota of some value. And that is why I 

 am an observer, why, above all, I am an 

 experimenter. 



It is something to observe; but it is not 

 enough: we must experiment, that is to say, 

 we must ourselves intervene and create ar- 

 tificial conditions which oblige the animal to 

 reveal to us what it would not tell if left to 

 the normal course of events. Its actions, 

 marvellously contrived to attain the end pur- 

 sued, are capable of deceiving us as to their 

 real meaning and of making us accept, in 

 their linked sequence, that which our own 

 logic dictates to us. It Is not the animal 

 that we are now consulting upon the nature 

 of its aptitudes, upon the primary motives 

 of its activity, but our own opinions, which 

 always yield a reply In favour of our cher- 

 ished notions. As I have already re- 

 io8 



