OF NATURAL HISTORY. 427 



* exhibit an air of Intelligence, and of concurring in the ac- 

 icompHOiment of the fame end. A fuperiicial obferver 

 « would inftantly afcribe to them \iews and talents which 



< they by no means poiTefs : He would explain every action : 



< Every operation would have its particular motive, and pro- 



< dixies of reafon would arife without number ; for ten 

 « thoufand individuals produced at one time, and obliged to 

 i live together, mufc all aft in the very fame mannrr ; and, 



< if endowed with feeling, they mud acquire the fame habits, 



< alTume that arrangement which is the leaft painful, or the 

 « moft eafy to themfelves, labour in their hive, return after 

 « leaving it, &c. Hence the origin of the many wonderful 

 « talents afcribed to bees, fuch as their architedhire, their 

 « geometry, their order, their forefight, their patrlotifm, and, 

 « in a word, their republic, the whole of which, as I have 



* proved, has no exiftence but in the imagination of the ob- 

 « ferver*.' 



That this mode of reafoning ftiould have been ferioufly 

 adopted by fo great a literary character as that of the Count 

 de Buffon, is truly aftonilhing. The fubftance of the argu^ 

 ment is, that ten thoufand bees, or other gregarious infects, 

 when brought into exiftence at the fame time, and in the 

 fame place, muft necelTarily by the inconvenience or pain 

 arifing from mutual prefTure, aflume an arrangement, and 

 conftrucl commodious and artful habitations for the whole 

 community. I hate polemical argumentation •, and philofo* 

 phical abfurdities are the moft difficult to refute. If teil 

 thoufand butterflies, or any other flies, whofe inftlnftive or 

 mental powers differed from thoie of the bee, fhould be 

 brought forth at the fame time, and in the fame place, which 

 might be eaftly effected by colledling their chryfalids, would 

 thefe animals, from the inconveniencies or pain they might 

 fuffer by being crouded together, affume a proper arrange- 

 • Tranflation, vol, 3, page 285. 



