GENERAL CHAEACTERISTICS. 9 



allowed himself any relaxation, but what the relief of his eyes 

 required." 



Huber's work on bees is such an admirable specimen of the 

 inductive system of reasoning, that it might well be studied 

 as a model of the only way of investigating nature, so as to 

 arrive at reliable results. 



21. Huber was assisted in his researches, not only by Bur- 

 nens, but by his own wife, to whom he was betrothed before 

 the loss of his sight, and who nobly persisted in marrying 

 him, notwithstanding his misfortune and the strenuous dis- 

 suasions of her friends. They lived longer than the ordinary 

 term of human life in the enjoyment of great domestic hap- 

 piness, and the amiable naturalist, through her assiduous at- 

 tentions, scarcely felt the loss of his sight. 



22. Milton is believed by many to have been a better poet 

 in consequence of his blindness ; and it is highly probable that 

 Huber was a better Apiarist from the same cause. His active, 

 yet reflective mind, demanded constant emploj'ment; and he 

 found, in the study of the habits of the honey-bee, full scope 

 for his powers. All the observations and experiments of his 

 faithful assistants being daily reported, many inquiries and 

 suggestions were made by him, which might not have occurred 

 to him, had he possessed the use of his eyes. 



Few, like him, have such command of both time and money, 

 as to be able to prosecute on so grand a scale, for a series 

 of years, the most costly experiments. Having repeatedly 

 verified his most important observations, we take gxeat de- 

 light in holding him up to our countrymen as the Prince op 

 Apiarists. 



23. Huber, having imprisoned a queen in a wire cage, saw 

 the bees pass their antennas through the meshes of the cage, 

 and turn them in every direction. The queen answered these 

 tokens of love by clinging- to the cage and crossing her antennas 

 with theirs. Some bees were trying to draw the queen out, 

 and several extended their tongues to feed her through the 

 meshes. Wonderful as the experiment seemed at that time, 



