CHAPTER XXXII. 



COMMISSION OP ERROR. 



AMONG the most frequently quoted examples of ' unerring 

 instinct,' guiding actions or operations superior to those 

 which result from human reason, is the cell-making of the 

 bee that ( busy bee ' of which Dr. Watts sings, and which 

 has for ages been held forth to admiration by writers of the 

 theological and moralising school. It is, however, one of 

 man's numerous errors to suppose that the bee constructs 

 its cell or its comb with ' unerring wisdom.' In point of 

 fact it frequently makes mistakes, constructing cells of im- 

 proper size or thickness of wall, so that the comb totters or 

 falls at its weakest point. The error, however, is usually 

 recognised; the weak points are supported by buttresses, 

 and in any further constructive operations a similar error is 

 avoided by the same animals that committed the mistake, 

 which animals, in other words, have profited by their expe- 

 rience and exhibited reason. There is, therefore, occasional 

 faulty construction of the honey-comb in the direction of 

 weakness and overloading. Waste of material, or the im- 

 proper use of material, or the selection of unsuitable mate- 

 rial, for constructive operations is not confined to bees. It 

 is shown, for instance, by certain birds and other animals. 

 Irregularities in the cells of bees are not, however, neces- 

 sarily errors or imperfections : they may be the result of 

 calculation, and therefore of intention (Huber). 



Bees commit many other kinds of error. Thus Alphonse 

 Karr asserts that bees will not alight on the bee orchis, 

 * believing it to be occupied by a fly,' one of the results of 

 vegetable mimicry. And other insects seem to commit the 



