THE BEE. 



lay at this rate all the year round, yet, taking the lowest estimate 

 of the period of her reproduction, the number of her young will 

 probably exceed not only that of the queen bee, but that of any 

 other known animal.* 



36. There is nothing in the economy of the bee more truly 

 wonderful, nor more calculated to excite our profound veneration 

 of the beneficent power, which conferred upon it the faculties 

 which guide its conduct, than the measures which it takes for the 

 construction of its dwelling, and for those of its young. These 

 processes are very various, according to the particular species of 

 the insect which executes them. Now, most of these species 

 differ in the mechanical and architectural principles upon which 

 they base the construction of their dwellings, all agreeing, never- 

 theless, in this, that they select those principles with admirable 

 skill, adapting them in all cases to the situation and circum- 

 stances in which their habitations are erected. 



37. If we would form an estimate of the civilisation and intel- 

 lectual condition of the population of a newly-discovered country, 

 we usually direct our attention, as Kirby observes, to their build- 

 ings and other examples of architectural skill. If we find them 

 like the wretched inhabitants of Yan Diemen's land, without 

 other abodes than natural caverns, or miserable penthouses of 

 bark, we at once regard them as ignorant and unhumanised. If, 

 like the South Sea islanders, they live in houses of timber 

 thatched with leaves, and supplied with various utensils, we 

 place them much higher in the scale. But when we discover a 

 nation inhabiting towns like the ancient Mexicans, consisting of 

 stone houses regularly arranged in streets, we do not hesitate to 

 pronounce them advanced^to a considerable point in civilisation. 



If, moreover, it be found that each building has been con- 

 structed upon the most profound mathematical principles, so that 

 the materials have been applied under such conditions as ensure 

 the greatest degree of strength, combined with the greatest degree 

 of lightness ; and that, while the internal apartments display the 

 most beautiful symmetry, they also afford the greatest capacity 

 which a given amount of materials can admit, we at once arrive 

 at the conclusion that such a population must have arrived not 

 alone at the highest degree of civilisation, but at the highest point 

 in the advancement of the sciences. 



38. If we were to affirm that all this may be said with the 

 most rigorous truth of many varieties of the bee, and above all of 

 the common hive-bee, we might be suspected of being merely 

 excited by that enthusiasm so common with those, who devote 



* See Tract on the White Ants. 

 18 



