46 



distance to stand from her fellow-labourers ;" and " we have 

 further to suppose" "but this is no difficulty" (to me), that she 

 can " prolong the hexagon to any length requisite " (only five 

 suppositions, a mere trifle in such a book as mine), and then you 

 will see it as I see it. Talk about Ovid and his Metamorphoses, 

 " nauct, rauci, pili, nihili, cestimo /" You tell me that all this 

 reminds you of Mr. Thornhill, in the " Vicar of Wakefield," and 

 his " Hence I shall proceed to observe that the concatenation 

 of self -existences, proceeding in a reciprocal duplicate ratio, 

 etc., etc." You may tell me what you like, but facts cannot 

 alter fancies, can they ? Answer me that question, if you can. 

 You say that if I can effect all this, beginning only to " slightly 

 modify" an instinct, I can do as much as the magicians of 

 Egypt, or the wizards of the Arabian Night's Entertainments. 

 Of course, I can ; " wonders never cease " in the creations of my 

 brain. I grant you, if you put it to me, that in like manner, by 

 only " slightly modifying " the instincts of the sheep, it would in 

 due tune, by a touch of the wand, heigh presto ! be turned into a 

 wolf. That is my mode of philosophical argument, though you 

 may think it a preposterous series of assumptions, all purely 

 imaginary and utterly incapable of proof, strung together in the 

 attempt to cancel Creation and so ignore a CREATOR. It is as I 

 say, because it must be as I say. 



I believe that "it seems at first quite inconceivable how bees 

 have practically solved a recondite problem," but I can soon get 

 over such a trifle as this, or the equally slight apparent difficulty 

 how the spider came to construct its web (on my theory), or how 

 the tailor-bird learned to sew together leaves to construct its 

 nest, or to whom the beaver served its apprenticeship in the art 

 of cutting do.wn timber and building a house, and so on through 

 all the instincts of all the creatures of Nature. I hold that u the 

 difficulty is not nearly so great as it at first appeared." Oh, 

 dear no ! Shew me the difficulty that I cannot ride over on my 

 hobby. I will thank you, I say, to shew me any such. 



I Ix-licve, as I said, that bees have learned by degrees to 

 "strike iina-inary spheres," being able " somehow to know the 

 proper distance " to work at. Thus, you see, my very useful 



