508 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



I must premise, however, that in so perplexed and in- 

 tricate a field, I am sensible how necessary it is to tread 

 with caution. A far greater collection of facts must be 

 made, and the science of me^physics generally be placed 

 on a more solid foundation than it now can boast, before 

 we can pretend to decide, in numerous cases, which of 

 the actions of insects are to be deemed purely instinctive, 

 and which the result of reason. What I advance, there- 

 fore, on this head, I wish to be regarded rather as con- 

 jectures, that, after the best consideration I am able to 

 give to a subject so much beyond my depth, seem to me 

 plausible, than as certainties to which I require your im- 

 plicit assent. 



That reason has nothing to do with the major part of 

 the actions of insects is clear, as I have before observed, 

 from the determinateness and perfection of these actions, 

 and from their being performed independently of instruc- 

 tion and experience. A young bee (I must once more 

 repeat) betakes itself to the complex operation of building 

 cells, with as much skill as the oldest of its compatriots. 

 We cannot suppose that it has any knowledge of the pur- 

 poses for which the cells are destined ; or of the effects 

 that will result from its feeding the young larvae, and the 

 like. And if an individual bee be thus destitute of the 

 very materials of reasoning as to its main operations, so 

 must the society in general. 



Nor in those remarkable deviations and accommoda- 

 tions to circumstances, instanced under a former head, 

 can we, for considerations there assigned, suppose in- 

 sects to be influenced by reason. These deviations are 

 still limited in number, and involve acts far too complex 

 and recondite to spring from any process of ratiocina- 



