The Mason- Wasps 



is the facsimile of yesterday's; and to-mor- 

 row will know no other. 



But, though the manufacturing-process is 

 invariable, the raw material is subject to 

 change. The plant that supplies the cotton 

 differs in species according to the locality; 

 the bush out of whose leaves the pieces will 

 be cut is not the same in the various fields 

 of operation; the tree that provides the 

 resinous putty may be a pine, a cypress, a 

 juniper, a cedar or a spruce, all very differ- 

 ent in appearance. What will guide the in- 

 sect in its gleaning? Discernment. 



These, I think, are sufficient details of the 

 fundamental distinction to be drawn in the 

 insect's mentality, the distinction, that is, be- 

 tween pure instinct and discernment. If 

 people confuse these two provinces, as they 

 nearly always do, any understanding be- 

 comes impossible; the last glimmer of light 

 disappears behind the clouds of inter- 

 minable discussions. From an industrial 

 point of view, let us look upon the insect 

 as a worker thoroughly versed from birth 

 in a craft whose essential principles never 

 vary; let us grant that unconscious worker 

 a gleam of intelligence which will permit it 

 to extricate itself from the inevitable con- 

 flict of attendant circumstances; and I think 

 162 



