ESCAPE OF THE YOUNG OUT OF PRISON. 23 



holes was the one by means of which the tunnel 

 was first formed, but the two lower ones have 

 been expressly formed by the carpenter-bee to 

 provide against the dilemma in which her young 

 would otherwise have been placed. They form 

 as it were posterns or back doors by which, when 

 the insect is perfected, it is easily enabled to 

 make its escape. Singular, indeed, it is, that the 

 insects, previous to passing into their last trans- 

 formation, arrange themselves with their heads 

 downwards, so that every one of them generally 

 emerges at the so-called back-door of the mansion. 

 There are many similar instances in natural 

 history of the manifest wisdom and forethought of 

 the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, 

 but we may safely say there are not many which 

 show it in so clear and striking a point of view as 

 this. It is to be remembered this industrious 

 insect in the arrangements in question does not act 

 from past experience. She never saw her young 

 brood, nor could learn of herself their wants and 

 dispositions, yet her plans for their welfare are 

 as admirably contrived as if she had brought up 

 generation after generation under her own eye, 

 and had learnt wisdom by the lapse of years. 



