56 LECTURE V. 



ness, and thus goes from one place to another. 

 Spiders may teach the art of weaving, and the 

 bee that of building. One insect has an instru- 

 ment like a saw ; and another like an auger, or 

 a carpenter's tool, to bore holes with. The 

 nautilus, which may almost be called a sea- 

 insect, spreads out a little sail, and guides it- 

 self with oars. In short, there is no creature, 

 however insignificant it may appear, from 

 which some benefit or instruction may not be 

 derived. 



You will, perhaps, be surprised when I tell 

 you that many of the little insects you see around 

 you have a great degree of sense, though you, 

 probably, avoid them with dislike. But so it is, 

 and I will give you one or two instances of it- 

 You know that bees are kept in hives, where 

 they lay up a store of honey, and they go in and 

 out of the hive through a hole left open at the 

 bottom of it. Now, a large slimy slug, which 

 has no shell, got into a hive through this hole. 

 The bees soon killed it; but their united strength 

 could not drag it out of the hive, and therefore 

 they covered it completely over with a thick 

 coating of coarse wax, called propolis. It so 

 happened that one of the common brown- shelled 



