74 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



jections to the discoveries of Huber, remind me so forcibly 

 of both the spirit and principles of the great majority of 

 those who object to the doctrines of revealed religion. 



" If an individual, with the view of acquiring some knowl- 

 edge of the natural history of the bee, or of its management, 

 consult the works of Bagster, Bevan, or any of the periodi- 

 cals which casually treat upon the subject, will he not rise 

 from the study of them with his mind surcharged with falsi- 

 ties and mystification ? Will he not discover through the 

 whole of them a servile acquiescence in the opinions and 

 discoveries of one man, however at variance they may be 

 with truth or probability ; and if he enter upon the discus- 

 sion with his mind free from prejudice, will he not experi- 

 ence that an outrage has been committed upon his reason, 

 in calling upon him to give assent to positions and principles 

 which at best are merely assumed, but to which he is called 

 upon dogmatically to subscribe his acquiescence as the in- 

 dubitable results of experience, skill and ability ? The 

 editors of the works above alluded to, should boldly and 

 indignantly have declared, that from their own experience 

 in the natural economy of the insect, they were able to pro- 

 nounce the circumstances as related by Huber to be directly 

 impossible, and the whole of them based on fiction and im- 

 position." 



Let the reader change only a few words in this extract : 

 for " the natural history of the bee or its management," let 

 him write, " the subject of religion ;" for, " the works of Bag- 

 ster, Bevan," &c., let him put, " the works of Moses, Paul," 

 &c. ; for, " their own experience in the natural economy 

 of the insect," let him substitute, " their own experience in 

 the nature of man ;" and for, " circumstances as related by 

 Huber," let him insert, " as related by Luke or John," and 

 it will sound almost precisely like a passage from some infi- 

 del author, 



