78 



AMERICAN BEE JOURMAU 



Whekeas, The all-wise Father has 

 seen fit to remove by death our valued 

 friend, Geo. H. Ashby, a prominent and 

 useful member of this association, 



Resolved, That we deplore his loss, 

 and be it further 



Resolved, That we extend our sympa- 

 thy to his wife and other members of his 

 family. G. H. Knickerbockek, 



E. R, Root. 



The convention then adjourned to 

 meet next year in the city of Washing- 

 ton, D. C, at the call of the Executive 

 Committee. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec. 



Reason ys. Insliiicl 



J. s. brendle. 



The question of the bee's rationality 

 has been ably discussed, pro and con, in 

 the columns of the Bee Journal, and I 

 have read with the keenest interest all 

 that has been published. I am not one 

 of those who bolieve that bees are en- 

 dowed with reason, and will here briefly 

 state my views on the subject. 



Reason is man's distinctive attribute, 

 which being superadded to those that he 

 shares with the animals below him in 

 the scale of excellence, constitutes him 

 a distinct class. Without reason, man 

 would be but an animal like the rest, 

 destitute of all motives of action except 

 the promptings of appetite and self- 

 propagation. 



The animal is governed by instinct, 

 and by instinct I understand reflected 

 reason, or the impress of the Creator's 

 purpose upon the functions of a creature 

 not endowed with free-will. Instinct 

 may also be defined as a kind or quality 

 of mentality whose operations are con- 

 fined to the mere conciousness of physical 

 wants and a perception of t\w best and 

 readiest means of satisfying them. It 

 is always true, implying absolute unifor- 

 mity of action as long as the environ- 

 ment remains the same, and illustrating 

 the infinites wisdom of that Being whose 

 purpose it reflects. In the domain of 

 instinct, s(^lf-determination is inconceiv- 

 able, and self-improvement impossible. 

 The animal cannot rise above its natural 

 condition nor sink below it, simply be- 

 cause it is subject to a law tiiat holds it 

 inevitably to a fixed course. Tluit law 

 is instinct. 



Under the benign sway of reason, 

 tiiere is freedom of will as a sense of the 

 moral quality of ev(iry action, and intel- 

 lectual advancen\ent becomes an abso- 



lute necessity. Progress is both the 

 evidence and the result of rational 

 activity. 



In the light of these truths it is clear 

 that the bee is governed entirely by in- 

 stinct. Man, endowed with reason, is 

 constantly expanding the powers within 

 him, and ever enlarging the sphere of 

 his usefulness; while the bee has re- 

 mained essentially the same since its 

 creation, and will always remain the 

 same until the day of doom. Instinct 

 has ever guided and xvill ever guide the 

 latter in an unchanging orbit of existence; 

 while reason has gradually elevated the 

 former to a plane of morality and civili- 

 zation, undreamed of by the earlier gen- 

 erations of the race, and will continue 

 to exalt him throughout endless ages yet 

 to come. 



Although adumbrations of rationality, 

 or so-called mental operations analogous 

 to ratiocination, are manifest in many 

 animals showing that their functions are 

 founded on divine purpose, there is 

 only one being in the natural world 

 that enjoys the gift of reason, and that 

 is man. The numerous instances in 

 which bees and other insects and animals 

 have been known to exhibit something 

 closely akin to rationality, prove nothing 

 except that instinct is always equal to 

 the demands of certain complications 

 of environment. Reason would enable 

 the bee to escape from the tyranny of 

 circumstances to which instinct holds it 

 subject, and to preserve its life where 

 instinct impels it to self-destruction, as 

 in the case of stinging. Reason would 

 render the bee man's co-ordinate, where- 

 as instinct makes it his servant. 



Shaefferstown, Pa. 



Tlie Pniilc Bee CoiilroYersy. 



K. r.. PRATT. 



Mr. T. W. Cowan's " error which in- 

 advertently crept in" is, I suppose, 

 pardonable, but there are one or two 

 more errors which Mr. Cowan should be 

 as willing to correct, if it could be shown 

 that he is mistaken, or not posted. 



He said that "Mr. Carr had never luid 

 or seen a Punic stock in his life." It 

 can be proven that Mr. Carr had a 

 Punic queen, and that the same colony 

 was reported "one of the strongest in 

 his yard," in a letter to ISIr. Hewitt. Mr. 

 Carr also wrote another person about 

 Punic bees, in such glowing terms that 

 he wrote quite excitedly for a Punic 

 queen in 1890. This accounts for the 



