84 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



liable to run out ! I will venture to assign a new reason 

 for the hexagonal form. The body of the immature insect 

 as it undergoes its changes, is charged wilh a super-abund- 

 ance of moisture which passes off through the reticulated 

 cover which the bees build over its cell : a hexagon while 

 it approaches so nearly the shape of a circle as not to in- 

 commode the young bee, furnishes in its six corners the 

 necessary vacancies for its more thorough ventilation ! 



So invariably uniform in size, as well as perfect in other 

 respects, are the cells in which the workers are bred, that 

 some mathematicians have proposed their adoption, as the 

 best unit for measures of capacity to serve for universal 

 use. 



Can we believe that these little insects unite so many 

 requisites in the construction of their cells, either by chance, 

 or because they are profoundly versed in the most intricate 

 mathematics ? Are we not compelled to acknowledge that 

 the mathematics must be referred to the Creator, and not to 

 His puny creature ? To an intelligent, candid mind, a 

 piece of honey comb is a complete demonstration that there 

 is a " GREAT FIRST CAUSE :" for on no other supposition can 

 we account for so complicated a shape, and yet the only one 

 which can possibly unite so many desirable requisites. 



" On books deep poring, ye pale sons of toil, 

 "Who waste in studious trance the midnight oil, 

 Say, can ye emulate with all your rules, 

 Drawn or from Grecian or from Gothic schools, 

 This artless frame ? Instinct her simple guide, 

 A heaven-taught Insect baffles all your pride. 

 Not all yon marshall'd orbs, that ride so high. 

 Proclaim more loud a present Deity, 

 Than the nice symmetry of these small cells, 

 "Where on each angle genuine science dwells." 



Evans. 



