348 THE INSECT WOELD. 



more than president of a republic. The vice-presidents, as we 

 have already pointed out, are all those females which at any given 

 moment may be called by choice that is, by popular election to 

 fulfil the functions of the sovereign, when death or accident 

 has put an end to her existence. " There is no such thing as a 

 king in nature," said Daubenton one day, in one of his lectures 

 at the Jardin des Plantes. The audience immediately applauded, 

 and cried "Bravo ! " The honest savant stopped quite disconcerted, 

 and asked his assistant naturalist the cause of this applause, per- 

 haps ironical. " I must have said something stupid," repeated 

 poor Daubenton between his teeth, remembering the saying of 

 Phocion under similar circumstances. " JSTo," replied his assistant 

 naturalist, " you have said nothing but what is quite true ; but, 

 without meaning it, you have made a political allusion. You spoke 

 against kings, and our young republicans thought that you were 

 alluding to Louis XVI." "Indeed," cried the coadjutor of 

 Buffon, " I had no idea that I was talking politics ! " The bee 

 republic, this little animal society, is admirably constituted, and 

 all its citizens obey its laws with docility. 



Bees have often served as an example, proving, according to 

 some, the marvellous intelligence of certain little animals ; accord- 

 ing to others, an instinct wonderfully developed. For ourselves, 

 we have never well understood what people mean by the word 

 instinct ; and we frankly grant to the bee intelligence, as we do 

 also to many animals. The greater number of the acts of their 

 life seem to be the result of an idea, a mental deliberation, a 

 determination come to after examination and reflection. The 

 construction of their cells, always uniform, is> they say, the result 

 of instinct. However, it happens that under particular circum- 

 stances, these little architects know how to abandon the beaten 

 track of routine, reserving to themselves the power of returning, 

 when it is useful to do so, to the traditional principles which 

 ensure the beauty and regularity of their constructions. Bees 

 have been seen, indeed, to deviate from their ordinary habits in 

 order to correct certain irregularities, the result of accident or 

 produced by the intervention of man, which had deranged their 

 works. 



Francis Huber relates that he saw bees propping up with 



