Exchanging the Nests 



with honey. I have just stolen it from its 

 owner, who would not have been long before 

 laying her egg in it. What will the mason 

 do in the presence of this munificent gift, 

 which saves her the trouble of building and 

 harvesting? She will leave the mortar, no 

 doubt, finish storing the Bee-bread, lay her 

 egg and seal up. A mistake, an utter mis- 

 take: our logic is not the logic of the in- 

 sect, which obeys an inevitable, unconscious 

 prompting. It has no choice as to what it 

 shall do; it cannot discriminate between what 

 is and what is not advisable; it glides, as it 

 were, down an irresistible slope prepared be- 

 forehand to bring it to a definite end. This 

 is what the facts that still remain to be stated 

 proclaim with no uncertain voice. 



The Bee who was building and to whom I 

 offer a cell ready-built and full of honey does 

 not lay aside her mortar for that. She was 

 doing Mason's work; and, once on that tack, 

 guided by the unconscious impulse, she has to 

 keep masoning, even though her labour be 

 useless, superfluous and opposed to her in- 

 terests. The cell which I give her is cer- 

 tainly perfect, looked upon as a building, in 

 the opinion of the master-builder herself, since 

 65 



