INSECTS. 219 



fact is, that when the honey is separated from the comb and 

 pvit into jars, it runs into fermentation with a much less 

 degree of heat than what takes place in a hive. This may 

 be rc'jkoned a nicety ; but independently of any nicety in 

 thi matter, I would ask, what could the bee do with the 

 iioney if it had not the wax ; how, at least, could it store 

 it up for winter ? The wax, therefore, answers a purpose 

 with respect to the honey, and the honey constitutes that 

 purpose with respect to the wax. This is the relation be- 

 tween them. But the two substances, though together of 

 the greatest use, and without each other of little, come from 

 a different origin. The bee finds the honey, but makes the 

 wax. The honey is lodged in the nectaria of flowers, and 

 probably undergoes little alteration — is merely collected ; 

 whereas the wax is a ductile, tenacious paste, made out of a 

 dry powder, not simply by kneading it with a liquid, but by 

 a digestive process in the body of the bee. What account 

 can be rendered of facts so circumstanced, but that the ani- 

 mal being intended to feed upon honey, was by a peculiar 

 external configuration enabled to procure it ? That, more- 

 over, wanting the honey when it could not be procured at 

 all, it was farther endued wdth the no less necessary faculty 

 of constructing repositories for its preservation ? Whic-h 

 faculty, it is evident, must depend primarily upon the capac- 

 ity of providing suitable materials. Two distinct functions 

 go to make up the ability. First, the power in the bee, 

 with respect to wax, of loading the farina of flowers upon 

 its thighs. Microscopic observers speak of the spoon-shaped 

 appendages with which the thighs of bees are beset for this 

 very purpose ; but inasmuch as the art and wdll of the bee 

 may be supposed to be concerned in this operation, there is, 

 •secondly, that which does not rest in art or will — a digestive 

 faculty, which converts the loose powder into a stiff sub- 

 stance. This is a just account of the honey and the honey* 

 comb ; and this account, through every part, carries a cre- 

 ative inteUijrence along with it. 



