THE BEE IN THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 



317 



to London, like the bees, from | bee constructed its cells on the 



secluded places on the borders of 

 heaths, from quiet English villages, 

 or distant manufacturing towns, 

 could have gone as far from the 

 Crystal Palace, and returned with- 

 out losing their way ? But where 

 the stranger in London had only 

 two eyes, the bee was possessed of 

 myriads ; and in addition to its 

 compound eyes fitted for horizontal 

 sight, it was supplied with a sort 

 of secondary eyes, or stemmata, for 

 vertical vision. And thus clear 

 and comprehensive of sight, it 

 winged its way to the wild-flowers 

 in the Parks, and the cultivated 

 flowers in Kensington Gardens and 

 Hammersmith -to the banks of the 

 Thames " where Thames first rural 

 grows" perhaps to imperial Kew 

 perhaps to the forest glades of 

 beautiful Eichmond 

 " To lofty Harrow now, and now to 

 where 



Majestic Windsor lifts his princely 

 brow ; 



. . . . To royal Hampton's pile, 



To Clermont's terraced height, and 

 Esher's groves, 



By the soft windings of the silent 

 Mole." 



The same wonderful instinct that 

 guides the little busy bee in its 

 wanderings amongst the fields and 

 gardens, and brings it back again 

 with unfailing certainty to the hive, 

 laden with honey extracted from 

 the nectaries of flowers, and pollen 

 from their anthers, directs it also in ' 

 selecting the plants suitable for its 

 purpose, and in rejecting those 

 which are pernicious or unproduc- 

 tive; and this discrimination the bee 

 could exercise ages before the mind 

 of man had elaborated the science 

 which classifies plants according 

 to their structure, and infers their 

 qualities from their classification. 

 in like manner, when the inhabi- 

 tants of our island lived in huts 

 of wattle and mud, painted their 

 persons, and roamed about in th" 

 rude freedom of savage life, the 



same architectural and geometrical 

 principles as it does at the present 

 day, having neither fallen below 

 nor improved upon the attainments 

 of that sagacious instinct with which, 

 the God of nature has so wisely 

 and beneficently endowed it. In- 

 stinct, perfect and persistent, con- 

 structs the curious prisms of the 

 bee -hive, and governs the social 

 economy of its industrious and 

 orderly community. It was well 

 to give a place to these social work- 

 era in the temple consecrated to the 

 triumphs of reason and the tro- 

 phies of art. In this the scene 

 of his proudest achievements, man 

 might learn a lesson, fitted at once 

 to humble and exalt him, from 

 " the little busy bee." " One thing," 

 says Kirby, " is clear to demonstra- 

 tion, that by these creatures and 

 their instincts, the power, wisdom, 

 and goodness of the Great Father 

 of the universe are loudly pro- 

 claimed; the atheist and infidel con- 

 futed, the believer confirmed in his 

 faith and trust in Providence, which 

 he thus beholds watching with in- 

 cessant care over the welfare of the 

 meanest of his creatures ; and from 

 which he may conclude that he, 

 the prince of the creation, will 

 never be overlooked or forsaken ; 

 and from theso what lessons may 

 be learned of patriotism and self- 

 devotion to the public good of 

 loyalty of prudence, temperance, 

 diligence, and self-denial !" 



THE WIG RIOT. 



In the year 17(!4, owing to 

 changes in the fashion, people 

 gave over the use of that v.-ry 

 artificial appendage the \viuc. -'ind 

 wur their own hair, when they 

 had any. In conseiuu'iuv of this, 

 the wig-makers, who had become 

 very numerous in London, were 

 suddenly thrown out of work, and 

 reduced to great distress. For 

 some time both town and country 



