PLEASURES OF SCIENCE. 1 



them. If the bladder breaks, the fish remains at the bottom, and can 

 only be held up by the most laborious exertions of the fins and tail 

 Accordingly, flat fish, as skaits and flounders, which have no air- 

 bladders, seldom rise from the bottom, but are found lying on banks in 

 the sea, or at the bottom of sea rivers. 



If you have a certain space, as a room, to build up with closets or little 

 cells, all of the same size and shape, there are only three figures which will 

 answer, and enable you to fill the room without losing any space between 

 the ceils ; they must either be squares, or figures of three equal sides, or 

 figufigffcf six equal sides. With any other figures whatever, space would 

 be lost between the cells. This is evidently true upon considering the 

 matter ; and it is proved by mathematical reasoning. The six-sided figure 

 is by far the most convenient of these three shapes, because its corners are 

 flatter, and any round body placed in it has therefore more space, there 

 being less room lost in the corners. Likewise, this figure is the strongest 

 of the three ; any pressure either from without or from within will hurt 

 it less, as it has something of the strength of an arch. A round figure 

 would be still stronger, but then room would be lost between the circles, 

 whereas none at all is lost with the six-sided figure. Now, it is a 

 most remarkable fact, that Bees build their cells exactly in this shape, 

 and thereby save both room and materials beyond what they could save 

 if they built in any other shape whatever. They build in the very 

 best possible shape for their purpose, which is to save all the room and 

 all the wax they can. So far as to the shape of the walls of each cell; 

 but the roof and floor, or top and bottom, are built on equally true 

 principles. It is proved by mathematicians, that to give the greatest 

 strength and save the most room, the roof and floor must be made of 

 three square planes meeting in a point ; and they have further proved 

 by a demonstration belonging to the highest parts of Algebra, that there 

 is one particular angle or inclination of those planes to each other where 

 they meet, which makes a greater saving of materials and of work than 

 any other inclination whatever could possibly do. Now, the bees 

 actually make the tops and bottoms of their cells of three plane^ meet- 

 ing in a point, and the inclination or angle at which they , icet is 

 precisely the one found out by the mathematicians to be the best 

 possible for saving wax and work. Who would dream for an instant of 

 the bee knowing the highest branches of Mathematics the fruits of 

 Newton's most wonderful discovery a result, too, of which he was 

 himself ignorant, one of his most celebrated followers having found 

 it out ? This little insect works with a truth and correctness which 

 are quite perfect, and according to the principles at which man 

 has only arrived, after ages of slow improvement in the most difficult 

 branch of the most difficult science. But the mighty and all wise 

 Creator, who made the insect and the philosopher, bestowing reason on 

 the latter, and ^IHng the former to work without it to Him all truths 

 are known from all eternity, with an intuition that mocks even the con- 

 ceptions of the sagest of human kind, 



It may be recollected, that when the air is exhausted or sucked out of 

 any vessel, there is no longer the force necessary to resist the pressure 

 of the air on the outside; and the sides of the vessel are therefore 

 pressed inwards with violence : a flat glass would thus be broken, unless 



