OF NATURAL HISTORY. 423 



* aflemblage ordained by Nature, and has no dependence on know- 

 ' ledge or reafoning. The mother bee produces at one time, and In 

 ' the fame place, ten thoufand individuals, which, though they were 



* much more ftupid than I have fuppofed them, would be obliged, 

 ' folely for the prefervation of their exiftence, to arrange themfelves 



* into fome order. As they all aft againft each other with equal 



* forces, fuppofing their firft movements to produce pain, they would 

 ' foon learn to diminifh this pain, or, in other words, to afford mu- 



* tual afliftance; They, of courfe, would exhibit an air of Intelli- 



* gence, and of concurring in the accompllfhmeni: of the fame end. 



* A fuperficial obferver would inftantly afcribe to them views and 

 ' talents which they by no means poflefs : He would explain every 

 ' aftion : Every operation would have its particular motive, and pro- 

 ' digies of reafon would arife without number ; for ten thoufand In- 



* dividuals produced at one time, and obliged to live together, muft 



* all a£l in the very fame manner ; and, if endowed with feeling, 



* they muft acquire the fame habits, affume 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 architedure, their 

 'geometry, their order, their forefight, their patriotifm, and, in a 

 'word, their republic, the whole of which, as I have proved, has no' 

 *' exiftence but in the imagination of the obferver *,' 



That this mode of reafoning ffiould have been feriouffy adopted' 

 by fo great a literary charafter as that of the Count de Buffon, is 

 truly aftonifhing. The fubftance of the argument is, that ten thou- 

 fand bees, or other gregarious infeds, when brought into exiftence 

 at the fame time, and in the fame place, muft neceflarily, by the in- 

 convenience or pain arifing from mutual preflure, affume an arrange- 



ment,- 



* Tranflation, vol. 3. page 285, 



