152 Instinct, 



to pass that those swarms of bees which build with 

 the least wax, would have most honey left for win- 

 ter, and so be most likely to live. The best build- 

 ers would in this way, be preserved, while all the 

 poor builders would, in time, die off. 



Here it will be observed that the theory does 

 not go back far enough to account for the whole 

 case. At most, it simply offers an explanation 

 of the preservation of those swarms made up of 

 the best builders. But we want to know how 

 the bee became a builder at all? and how the In- 

 stinct to build cells and the function of secreting 

 wax fitted for the work, began together ; and how 

 the Honey-bee got along before it had either the 

 function or the Instinct, both of which now seem 

 essential to its very existence ? Then we have also 

 to observe that it is the neuter bees that secrete 

 the wax and build the cells ; and since these neuter 

 bees are sterile, the characteristics they possess and 

 the skill they acquire, cannot be transmitted. All 

 the bees that build cells and gather honey, have de- 

 scended for thousands of years, at least, from pa- 

 rents that never did any thing of the kind. 



Now this, Mr. Darwin would probably say, is a 

 case of correlation.* That is, it is true the parents 

 do not do these things, but these powers of the 

 neuters are so correlated to the needs of the com- 

 munity, that the whole species become good builders 

 by Natural Selection, because those swarms alone 

 are preserved where such neuters are produced as get 

 along with little wax and consequently with little 



* " Origin of Species," 5th Am. Ed., pp. 227, 228. 



