6o THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



inability to follow them. But would our powers of discern- 

 ment be so very much subtler if an intelligence of an order 

 entirely different from our own, and served by a body so 

 colossal that its movements were almost as imperceptible as 

 those of a natural phenomenon, were to divert itself by 

 laying traps of this kind for us ? Has it not taken us 

 thousands of years to invent a sufficiently plausible explana- 

 tion for the thunderbolt ? There is a certain feebleness that 

 overwhelms every intellect the moment it emerges from its 

 own sphere, and is brought face to face with events not of 

 its own initiation. And besides, it is quite possible that if 

 this ordeal of the trellis were to obtain more regularly and 

 generally among the bees, they would end by detecting the 

 pitfall, and by taking steps to elude it. They have mastered 

 the intricacies of the " movable comb," of the " sections " 

 that compel them to store their surplus honey in little boxes 

 symmetrically piled ; and in the case of the still more ex- 

 traordinary innovation of " foundation wax," where the cells 

 are indicated only by a slender circumference of wax, they 

 are able at once to grasp the advantages this new system 

 presents. They most carefully extend the wax, and thus, 

 without loss of time or labour, construct perfect cells. So long 

 as the event that confronts them appears not a snare devised 

 by some cunning and malicious god, the bees may be trusted 

 always to discover the best, nay, the only human, solution. 

 Let me cite an instance, an event that, though occurring in 

 nature, is still in itself wholly abnormal. I refer to the 

 manner in which the bees will dispose of a mouse or a slug 

 that may happen to have found its way into the hive. The 

 intruder killed, they have to deal with the body, which will 



