332 INSTINCTS OF BEES. 



the wonders of the honey'd reign," no more be- 

 speak the agency of mind or intellect, than the 

 configuration of salts into their respective crystals. 



" Shall then proud sophists arrogant and vain, 

 Spurn all the wonders of the honey'd reign, 

 And bid alike one mindless influence own 

 The social bee, and crystallizing stone ? 

 Each link they trace in animation's round, 

 Dashes their poison'd chalice to the ground.'* EVANS. 



If this theory respecting insects were just, it 

 should elucidate all the phenomena which it un- 

 dertakes to explain, otherwise it is injurious to 

 science. Examination will prove it to be a mere 

 hypothetical opinion, ingenious, and at first sight 

 plausible, but completely unsatisfactory. This 

 theory is the natural consequence of denying to 

 insects any portion of intellect, and its erroneous- 

 ness is shown by their capability of instruction. 

 Instinct itself cannot be a purely mechanical pro- 

 cess, or it would be incapable of modification, and 

 would, under like circumstances, always act in the 

 same manner. SIR JOSEPH BANKS'S spider that, 

 on being crippled, changed from a sedentary web- 

 weaver to a hunter, is an instance of modified in- 

 stinct*. The well known fact that birds build 



* The account of this spider was sent to Dr. Leach by 

 Sir Joseph Banks. An interesting history of it is given in the 

 Linnsean Transactions, vol. ii. page 393. It had lost five 

 of its legs, which were afterwards reproduced, but the new 

 legs were shorter than those for which they were substituted. 



