THE BEE. 



less beneficence, never fails to excite in well-constituted minds the 

 most pleasurable and grateful emotions. Such views of Nature 

 are the truest and purest fountains of that reverential love, 

 which so eminently distinguishes the Christian from all other 

 forms of worship. 



In the notices from time to time given in this series of the 

 stupendous works of creation presented in the heavens, and of 

 the benevolent care displayed in the supply of the physical wants 

 of the inhabitants, not of the terrestrial globe * alone, but also of 

 the planets,t which, in company with the earth, revolve round 

 the sun, numerous examples of such beneficence are presented. 

 The vast dimensions of these works, as well as the great import- 

 ance and the countless numbers of the objects to be provided for, 

 leading the mind naturally to expect a system of provisions esta- 

 blished on a corresponding scale, their display, while it excites 

 equal admiration and reverence, produces a less intense sentiment 

 of wonder. When, however, we turn our view from the vast 

 works of creation exhibited in the celestial regions, to the more 

 minute ones presented in the organised world around us, our 

 wonder is as much excited as our admiration, at beholding the 

 same traces of Divine care in the economy of an insect, as were 

 observed in the structure and motions of a planet. There are the 

 same infinite wisdom and foresight, the same unapproachable 

 skill, the same boundless goodness directed to the maintenance of 

 the species and the well-being of the individual, as we have seen 

 displayed in the provisions for a globe a thousand times larger 

 than the earth, or for a cluster of worlds millions of times more 

 numerous than the entire solar system, sun, earth, planets, moons, 

 and all ! We have thus before us a demonstration that as the 

 most stupendous works of the universe the expression of whose 

 dimensions surpasses the powers of arithmetic are not above 

 Divine control and superintendence, so neither are the most insig- 

 nificant of creatures whose existence and structure can be made 

 evident only by the microscope below the same benevolent care. 



2. Among the numerous examples, suggestive of reflections 

 such as these, presented by the insect-world, there is none more 

 remarkable than the little creature, to the character and economy 

 of which we shall devote this notice. How true this is, is proved 

 by the examples of those who, in all ages of the world, have de- 

 voted their labours to the observation and investigation of its 

 character and habits. In the Hebrew Scriptures numerous allu- 

 sions to the bee show that, in those remote times, it had already 



* See Tracts on the Earth, Geography, Terrestrial Heat, Ah-, Water, &c. 

 f See the Planets, are they inhabited ? the Sun, the Moon, the Stellar 

 Universe, &e. 



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