280 ESSAYS ann OBSERVATIONS 
ufe of animals ; what the great Mr Boyle fays 
of the one, may well be applied to the o- 
ther (). And fince we fee bees frequent- 
ly come out of flowers loaded with their duft, 
and apparently carrying it to their hives ; it. 
is not improbable that they feed on it. For, 
if Mr Geoffroy’s experiments can be depended 
on (q); it caniiot be the materia of wax, with- 
out being digefted and prepared in the in- 
fect; and, how many other infects may live 
on it, I cannot tell. 
57. Bur, 
(p) ‘¢ The whole animal is but a part of that greater body 
“ the univerfe ; and therefore cannot eafily be fuppofed to 
«< have been framed and furnifhed with the parts it confifts 
“¢ of, intirely for its own fake. And, when we fay, that all 
“ its parts are contrived for the beft advantage for the animal, 
é 1 conceive it to be underftood in this limited fenfe, that 
«« the parts are excellently framed for the welfare of the ani- 
¢¢ mal as far furth as that welfare, is confiftent with the ge- 
“ neral ends of the Author of nature, in the conftitution 
<< and government of the univerfe. All which ends it is not 
“ an eafy tafk to difcover, tho’ fome of them may be inve- 
“ ftigable by us. And, it feems prefumption to fuppofe, 
“ that the welfare of particular animals, is any further de- 
«© figned and provided for, than will confift with the cofimi- 
“© cal ends of the univerfe, and the courfe of God’s general 
«« providence, to which his fpecial or particular providence, 
« about this or that mere animal, ought, in reafon, to be 
“ fubordinated.” Vid. Boyie’s Works, vol. 4. p. 548. 
(7) Vid. Mem. acad. k. 1711. 
