180 The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



AMONG bees, the proverbial type of industry, those 

 that are by far the best known and most admired are 

 the hive bees that work in common and lay up their 

 stores for the general good of a large community. 

 But there are other species of bees, no less industrious, 

 that work in solitude. So, among men of science, 

 there are some essentially hermits, who study and 

 observe in seclusion, undistracted and uncheered by 

 companionship in their investigations. Others are 

 more sociable in temper, and, no doubt, in the play of 

 wits and in the friction of argument to men of such 

 a disposition fresh avenues of inquiry will be opened, 

 errors of judgment laid bare, and a sense imparted 

 enabling them to eliminate what may be only stale 

 and unprofitable in their own efforts from that which 

 is useful and to the point. 



It was to the latter class that David Robertson 

 emphatically belonged. He never stood aloof shyly 

 or selfishly, but ever offered his capacity for others to 

 make use of, though offering it in a manner the most 

 modest, and often under the guise of asking for in- 



