The Mason-Wasps 



It can add nothing essential to them nor 

 subtract anything from them, any more 

 than it is able to increase or diminish the 

 pulsations of its dorsal vessel. 



Test it with an accident and you affect 

 it not at all: such as it is in the undisturbed 

 exercise of its calling, such it will remain 

 should circumstances arise demanding some 

 modification in the conduct of its task. Ex- 

 perience does not teach it; time does not 

 awaken a glimmer in the darkness of its 

 unconsciousness. Its art, perfect in its 

 speciality, but inept in the face of the slight- 

 est new difficulty, is handed down im- 

 mutably, as the art of the suction-pump is 

 handed down to the babe at the breast. To 

 expect the insect to alter the essential points 

 of its industry is to hope that the babe will 

 change its manner of sucking. Both 

 equally ignorant of what they are doing, 

 they persevere in the method prescribed for 

 the safeguarding of the species, precisely be- 

 cause their ignorance forbids them to make 

 any sort of essay or attempt. 



The insect, then, lacks the aptitude for 

 reflection, the aptitude that harks back and 

 reverts to the antecedent, without which the 

 consequent would lose all its value. In the 

 phases of its industry, each action accom- 

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