28 THE HONEY-BEE. 



enthusiastic Virgil, stating, and probably adopting, a 

 prevalent opinion, speaks of the Bee as " having 

 received a direct emanation from the divine intelli- 

 gence." After all this study, however, these enthu- 

 siastic admirers have thrown but little light on the 

 real nature of this extraordinary insect ; and while 

 they have handed down to us many judicious pre- 

 cepts for its practical treatment, their disquisitions on 

 its natural history can now only excite a smile. The 

 chief cause of this failure may be fairly ascribed, 

 perhaps, to the want of those facilities for discovery 

 which modern science has afforded, and by which 

 the most hidden mysteries of Bee economy are ren- 

 dered clear and palpable. A host of writers on the 

 nature of the Bee appeared during the last century, 

 who, availing themselves of the improvements in 

 general science, made many interesting additions to 

 our stock of knowledge on the subject. Swammer- 

 dam, Maraldi, Reaumur, Bonnet, Schirach, and more 

 recently Huber on the Continent, and Thorley, Wild- 

 man, Keys, Hunter, and Bonner, among ourselves, 

 multiplied, a hundred-fold, the discoveries of Aris- 

 totle, Columella, and Varo ; and the vague conjec- 

 tures and fabulous details of the latter philosophers, 

 have been succeeded by rational research and dis- 

 criminating experiment. But even in the investiga- 

 tions of the first named writers, not excepting the 

 most accurate and successful experimenter of them 

 all, the indefatigable Huber, there are some obvious 

 errors which longer experience and observation have 

 been enabled to detect, and some questionable state- 



