LETTER XX. 



SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



PERFECT SOCIETIES CONCLUDED. 



llAviiifG given you a history sufficiently ample of the 

 queen or female bee, I shall next add some account of 

 the drone or male bee ; but this will not detain you 

 long, since " to be born and die" is nearly the sum 

 total of their story. Much abuse, from the earliest 

 times, has been lavished upon this description of the 

 inhabitants of the hive, and their indolence and glut- 

 tony have become proverbial. — Indeed, at first sight, it 

 seems extraordinary that seven or eight hundred indi- 

 viduals should be supported at the public expense, 

 and to common appearance do nothing all the while 

 that may be thought to earn their living. But the 

 more we look into nature, the more we discover the 

 truth of that common axiom, — that nothing is made in 

 vain. — Creative Wisdom cannot be caught at fault. 

 Therefore, where we do not at present perceive the 

 reasons of things, instead of cavilling at what we do 

 not understand, we ought to adore in silence, and 

 wait patiently till the veil is removed which, in any par- 

 ticular instance, conceals its final cause from our sight. 

 The mysteries of nature are gradually opened to us, 

 one truth making way for the discovery of another : 

 but still there will always be in nature, as well as in 



