INSTINCT OF INSECTSi 495 



the othier they imparted to them such enlarged dimen- 

 sions ? — And how can we feel adequate astonishment 

 that they should have the art of making cells of such 

 different sizes correspond* ? 



After this long but I flatter myself not wholly unin- 

 teresting enumeration, you will scarcely hesitate to ad- 

 mit that insects, and of these the bee pre-eminently, are 

 endowed with a much more exquisite and flexible in- 

 stinct than the larger animals. But you may be here 

 led to ask. Can all this be referred to instinct ? Is not 

 this pliability to circumstances — this surprising adap- 

 tation of means for accomplishing an end — ^rather the 

 result o^ reason? 



You will not doubt my allowing the appositeness of 

 this question, when I frankly tell you, that so strikingly 

 do many of the preceding facts seem at first \iew the 

 effect of reason, that in my original sketch of the letter 

 you are now reading, I had arranged them as instances 

 of this faculty. But mature consideration has con- 

 vinced me (though I confess the subject has great dif- 

 ficulties) that this view was fallacious ; and that though 

 some circumstances connected with these facts may, as 

 I shall hereafter show, be referable to reason, the facts 

 themselves can only be consistently explained by re- 

 garding them as I have here done, as examples of 

 variations of particular instincts : — and this on two ac- 

 counts. 



In the first place, these variations, however singular, 

 are limited in their extent : all bees arc, and have always 

 been, able to avail themselves of a certain numl>er, 



^ Huber, ii. 219— . 



