580 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



tered so violently that the scheme was almost imprac- 

 ticable. To remedy this inconvenience, and to make 

 the comb steady, they had recourse to a most ingenious 

 expedient. Two or three bees got upon the comb, 

 stretched themselves over its edge, and with their heads 

 downwards fixed their fore-feet on the table upon which 

 it stood, whilst with their hind feet they kept it from 

 falling. In this constrained and painful posture, fresh 

 bees relieving their comrades when weary, did these 

 affectionate little insects support the comb for nearly 

 three days ! At the end of this period they had pre- 

 pared a sufficiency of wax with which they built pillars 

 that kept it in a firm position : but by some accident 

 afterwards these got displaced, when they had again 

 recourse to their former manoeuvre for supplying their 

 place, and this operation they perseveringly continued 

 until M. Huber, pitying their hard case, relieved them by 

 fixing the object of their attention firmly on the table*. 

 It is impossible not to be struck with the reflection 

 that this most singular fact is inexplicable on the sup- 

 position that insects are impelled to their operations by 

 a blind instinct alone. How could mere machines have 

 thus provided for a case which in a state of nature has 

 probably never occurred to ten nests of humble-bees 

 since the creation ? If in this instance these little ani- 

 mals were not guided by a process of reasoning, what 

 is the distinction between reason and instinct ? How 

 could the most profound architect have better adapted 

 the means to the end — liow more dexterously shored up 

 a tottering edifice, until his beams and his props were 

 in readiness? 



* l^inn. Trans, vi. 247 &c. 



