RATIONALE OF BEE-CULTURE. 247 



ward with such eagerness and impetuosity, but for one 

 successful season only, the price of honey and wax, 

 during the succeeding, would be reduced almost to 

 nothing; and the production, however intrinsically 

 valuable, worth little else, might be bestowed as 

 manure upon the land. It must yet be allowed, that a 

 considerable sum is annually expended in the import 

 of foreign honey ; to the extent, it was averred, a 

 few years since, of 240,000/. 



The rational MOTIVES for keeping these interest- 

 ing insects in England are, the gratification of natu- 

 ral and scientific curiosity, the national supply of 

 their productions, and, in particular, to form a ne- 

 cessary article in the rounding or completing the 

 plan of a country-house, as sketched in our preface. 

 The culture of the bee has been known and prac- 

 tised from almost the earliest ages of which we have 

 any record, and its wonderful instinct, subtilty of 

 contrivance, and proverbial industry, have never 

 failed to attract the notice, and engage the investi- 

 gation, of some of the most learned and enlightened 

 men of every age. Indeed, the total neglect of the bee 

 must appear, to the eye of reason and of science, 

 as a barbarism and shame to any age or nation. The 

 estimation in which this insect was held in ancient 

 times, will be evident from the splendid character 

 bestowed upon it by men most celebrated for their 

 genius and learning, Virgil styles the bee a ray of 

 the divinity. Plutarch calls it the magazine of vir- 

 tues, and Quintillian avers, that it is the greatest 

 of geometricians. The effects of instinct in the 

 bee, forms one of nature's most marvellous exhibi- 

 M 4 



