Chap.IlI. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 315 



always remains In the hive, and takes care tliat all her fubje<fls be 

 properly employed, lending fo many of them out, to get provifions ; 

 and what they bring in, ihe receives, and lays up till it be pro^ ..r to 

 ufe it ; and when that time comes, fhe divides it, and gives to every 

 one a (hare. As to the work within doors of making comb?, Ihe 

 takes care alfo that it be properly executed ; and accordingly ic is 

 executed, as I have faid, in the beft manner poffible. She likewifc 

 takes care of the progeny, that it be properly nounn:ied and brought 

 up ; when that is done, and the young are fit for work, fhe fends 

 out a colony of tlicm, under a leader whom fhe appoints. This 

 government, faye the pious author, is from God. And indeed it is 

 evident that the inRindl by which tlie bees produce works of fuch 

 art and carry on fuch a government, mufi: be from God. 



As to the other political animal I mentioned, namely the ants, 

 there is a commentator upon Ariftotle's Phyfics, Simplicius by name, 

 who (in p. 86.) has told us that the ants in their ncfts have three 

 apartments ; in one of which they live and feed, in another they lay 

 up their provifions, and in the third they bury their dead. In 

 carrying their provifions to their nefts, they ufe v^'onderful ways for 

 drawing what with refpeA to them are great weights : And when 

 their provifions become wet, they take them out and expofe them to 

 the fun, and in that way dry them ; and they make all their move- 

 ments with great order and regularity. 



The fame author in the fame part of his works, fays further, that 

 the fwallows and nightingales, in building their nefts, ufe clay fo 

 well wrought and fo dry, that the phyficians make ufe of it, when 

 they have occafion, for phyfical purpofes, to ufe the beft kind of 

 clay : And this clay thcfe birds mix with ftraw, and fb make a kind 

 of cement of it, v^ which they make their nefts of fize fufEcient, 

 and very firm and itrong. 



R r 2 What 



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