ARISTOTLE VIRGIL HUBER. 



been a subject of attention with the wisest and the best. Pliny 

 relates that Aristomachus of Soli in Cilicia devoted fifty-eight 

 years of his life to the study of the bee ; and that Philiscus, the 

 Thracian, passed so large a part of his time in the woods observing 

 its habits, that he acquired the title of AGRIUS. Among his 

 numerous researches in natural history, Aristotle assigned a con- 

 siderable share to the bee ; and Virgil devoted to it the fourth 

 book of his Georgics : 



' ' Protenus aerii mellis ccelestia dona 

 Exsequar. Hanc etiam, Maecenas, adspice partem. 

 Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum, 

 Magnanimosque duces, totiusque ordine gentis 

 Mores, et studia, et populos, et prselia dicam. 

 In tenui labor ; at tenuis non gloria, si quern 

 Numina Iseva sinunt, auditque vocatus Apollo." 



GEORG. IV. 17. 



' ' The gifts of Heaven my following song pursues, 

 Aerial honey, and ambrosial dews. 

 Maecenas, read this other part that sings 

 Embattled squadrons and advent'rous kings 

 Their arms, their arts, their manners, I disclose, 

 And how they war and whence the people rose. 

 Slight is the subject, but the praise not small 

 If Heaven assist, and Phcebus hear my call." 



DRYDEN. 



3. In modern times the bee has been the subject of the obser- 

 vations and researches of some of the most eminent naturalists, 

 among whom may be mentioned Swammerdam (1670), Maraldi 

 (1712), Ray, Reaumur (1740), Linnaeus, Bennet, Schirach, John 

 Hunter, Huber father and son, and more recently Kirby, whose 

 monograph upon the English bees may be regarded as a classic in 

 natural history. 



4. Among these, the elder Huber stands pre-eminent, not only 

 for the extent and importance of his contributions to the history of 

 the insect, but for the remarkable circumstances and difficulties 

 under which his researches were prosecuted. Visited with the 

 privation of sight at the early age of seventeen, his observations 

 were made with the eyes and his experiments performed with the 

 hands of others ; and, notwithstanding this discouragement and 

 obstacles which might well have been regarded as insurmountable, 

 he continued his labours for forty years, during which he made 

 those discoveries which have conferred upon him such celebrity. 



5. Happily for science, Huber, after losing his sight and at the 

 commencement of his researches, had in his service a domestic, 

 named Fra^ois Burnens, a native of the Pays de Vaud, in Swit- 

 zerland. Reading and writing constituted the extent of the 



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