OF NATURAL HISTORY. 42^ 



The infe<n: tribes furnifh many inftances of proper fo- 

 cietles. The honey-bees not only labour in common with 

 aftonifhing affiduity and art, but their whole attention and 

 afFe6lions feeni to centre in the perfon of the queen or {ov- 

 ereign of the hive. She is the bafis of their aiicciation and 

 of all their operations. When flie dies by any accident, the 

 whole community are inftantly in diforder. All their labour's 

 ceafe. No new cells are conftru6led. Neither honey nor 

 wax are coUecSled. Nothing but perfect anarchy prevails, 

 till a new queen or female is obtained. The government or 

 foclety of bees is more of a monarchical than of a republican 

 nature. The whole members of the ftate feem to refpccl 

 and to be direcSled by a fingle female. This fad affords a, 

 ftrong inftance of the force and wifdom of Nature. The 

 female alone is the mother of the whole hive, however nu-^ 

 merous. Without her the fpecies could not be continued. 

 Nature, therefore, has endowed the reft of the hive with a 

 wonderful afFedlion to their common parent. For the recep-? 

 tion of her eggs Nature impels them to conftrudt cells, and 

 to lay up ftores of provifions for winter fubfiftence. Thcfe 

 operations proceed from pure inflinflive impulfes. But every 

 inftincl neceffarily fuppofes a degree of intelle<fl:, a fubftratuni 

 to be a<Sted upon, otherwife no impulfe could be felt, and of 

 courfe, no aclion nor mark of intelligence could poilibly be 

 produced. 



That the intelligence, the government, and the fagacity of 

 bees, have been frequently exaggerated, and as frequently 

 mifunderftood, no real philofppher, or natural hiftorian, will 

 pretend to deny. But the late ingenious Count de Bufixjn, 

 through the whole of his great w^ork, betrays the ftrongefb 

 inclination to deny that brutes, even thofe which are efi:ecm- 

 ed to be the moft fagacious, as the dog, the elephant, &:c. 

 not to mention the inferior tribes, as birds, fifhes, and infecls, 

 are endowed with the fmallefl portion of mind or inte^Iei^^ 



