70 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
study of the bee and all her works, the more diffi- 
cult it becomes to find a word that shall more 
fittingly meet the case. Instinct will not do. 
Instinct implies a dead perfection of motive, born 
of omniscience, working through unthinking, un- 
varying organisms to an equally perfect end. 
But in neither project nor performance can the 
honey-bee be said invariably to achieve, or even 
to aim at, perfection. It will be seen hereafter 
that her motives, her methods, the results she 
brings about, all show frequent, undeniable error 
or deviation. She attempts to carry through a 
sound enterprise, but abandons it on finding un- 
foreseen difficulties in the way. She will persevere 
blindly in an obviously foolish piece of business, 
and fail to see her mistake until both energy and 
resources are at an end. Sudden emergencies 
may find her ready with the saving stroke of last 
ingenuity, or merely plunge her into listless despair. 
Courage, industry, economy, wise forethought, or 
still wiser afterthought, are all common traits in 
her nature. But she may develop idleness, un- 
thrift, slovenliness, or even downright dishonesty, 
if chance or circumstance indicate the way. 
And what are all these but the defects or 
attributes of reason? If bees and men, each 
admittedly rooted in divinity, be prone to the like 
failings and inconsequences, who shall discriminate 
between them, dividing arbitrarily natural cause 
and effect ? 
