joS THE SEE. 



GxNUS VIII ^pii. The Bee, 



\n/£ are now coirie to a tribe of the mGn; ufeful of iifi^ 

 ie6ts, whofe hiftory has been the fubjedt of many vo-* 

 lumes. Almoft every writer on entymology has made 

 the manners and economy of thefe animals a conliderable 

 part of his work ;. and many authors have treated of 

 them, who have entered into bo other department of na-=i 

 tural hiftory *. Several of thefe, catching that enthuli- 

 afm which is natural in contemplating creatures whof'i 

 inflinds are truly wonderful, feem to fet no bounds to 

 the eulogies they have lavifhed upon them. If you be- 

 lieve them, there is hardly any fort of intelligence or 

 moral virtue, which bees do not poffefs ; and the whols 

 of their manners arefuch as afford us but too juft caufes of 

 felufhing at our own. The celebrated Reaumur, in de- 

 tailing the economy of thefe animals, an objeft to which 

 he applied himfelf with a perfeverance fuperior to all 

 iTiankind, has abftra£led much of the marvellous from 

 their hifirory ; but in return, he has enlarged it with 

 many facts and obfervations formerly unknown, and 

 which fucceeding experiments have feldom contradicted : 

 The following brief account of thefe infects, in general, 

 reils upon his authority. 



There 



* Among the moft judicious naluralifts who have written upon this 

 fubjed, we may rank the following, viz. AIoUiTct, Mtrian, Aldravandu*^, 

 Johnflon, Charleton, Ray, Dale, and Reaumur. 



