LETTER XX. 



SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 







PERFECT SOCIETIES CONCLUDED. 



HAVING given you a history sufficiently ample of the 

 queen or female bee, I shall next add some account of 

 the drone or male bee / but this will not detain you long, 

 since, " to be born and die" is nearly the sum total of 

 their story. Much abuse, from the earliest times, has 

 been lavished upon this description of the inhabitants of 

 the hive, and their indolence and gluttony have become 

 proverbial. Indeed, at first sight, it seems extraordi- 

 nary that seven or eight hundred individuals ^hould be 

 supported at the public expense, and to common ap- 

 pearance do nothing all the while that may be thought 

 to earn their living. But the more we look into nature, 

 the more we discover the^ truth of that common axiom, 

 that nothing is made in vain. Creative Wisdom can- 

 not be caught at fault. Therefore, where we do not at 

 present perceive the reasons of things, instead of cavil- 

 ling at what we do not understand, we ought to adore 

 in silence, and wait patiently till the veil is removed 

 which, in any particular instance, conceals its final cause 

 from our sight. The mysteries of nature are gradually 

 opened to us, one truth making way for the discovery of 



