47 



friends, the bees, anticipated Tyndall in his " Use of the Imagina- 

 tion in Science." Clever of them, was it not ? Yes, clever, very 

 clever indeed. You may reply to this that if carpenters and 

 masons were to " strike imaginary spheres," and " somehow' 1 to 

 ascertain the " proper distances " without rule or plummet, they 

 would be likely to make but a bungling job of it. I pass that 

 by ; all I say is that the bee imagines a circle which it never 

 really sweeps, knows when and where one such circle meets 

 another, and builds its building on these baseless dreams. 



I believe that Natural Selection has by degrees in untold ages 

 upon ages, led the hive-bee to make its comb " absolutely 

 perfect in the economising of wax." It may be a difficulty to 

 you, but it is none to me, that swarm after swarm must have 

 been hatched with new instincts, a queen producing 20,000 eggs 

 capable of " striking imaginary spheres," suggestive to modern 

 philosophers of striking out the most wild freaks of the 

 " Imagination " to be set forth in due time hi a mere jingle of 

 words making a pretence to science. Supposed facts, in my 

 opinion, are to be established by the "use of the Imagination" 

 inventing phenomena which have no real existence, taking for 

 granted what had to be proved, and by the unlimited use of 

 inaccurate language and endless repetitions, enveloped in a cloud 

 of words involved as much as possible. 



I believe all I have said about the bees, and I do not consider 

 that it is for me to explain with whom or with what they have 

 to struggle, the humble bee doing just as well with its rough 

 architecture as the hive-bee with its mathematical construction, 

 and wanting no improvement, excepting in the brain of a 

 " philosopher." You may say, in reply to all this, why not 

 leave well alone? Because it does not suit me to do so. That's 

 why. That it might, or might not, suit the bes is quite another 

 matter. 



I believe that we ought never to refer to final causes, though 

 Dr. Whewell says we cannot help doing so, as we prove by 

 ourselves often using such expressions as Nature's " designs "" 

 and "her objects," protesting all the while that we only use 

 them in a " wide metaphorical sense." 



