200 



THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



IS 



This language is not even confined to the profane ; it 

 made use of by entomologists of the rank of Kirby and 

 Spence, in order to deny the bees the possession of intellect 

 other than may vaguely stir vi^ithin the narrow prison of 

 an extraordinary but unchanging instinct, " Show us," they 

 say, " a single case where the pressure of events has inspired 

 them with the idea, for instance, of substituting clay or mortar 

 for wax or propolis ; show us this, and we will admit their 

 capacity for reasoning." 



This argument, that Romanes refers to as the " question- 

 begging argument," and that might also be termed the " in- 

 satiable argument," is exceedingly dangerous, and, if applied 

 to man, would take us very far. Examine it closely, and 

 you find that it emanates from the "mere common sense" 

 which is often so harmful ; the " common sense " that replied 

 to Galileo : " The earth does not turn, for I can see the sun 

 move in the sky, rise in the morning and sink in the even- 

 ing ; and nothing can prevail over the testimony of my 

 eyes." Common sense makes an admirable, and necessary, 

 background for the mind ; but unless it be watched by a lofty 

 disquiet, ever ready to remind it, when occasion demand, of 

 the infinity of its ignorance, it dwindles into the mere routine 

 of the baser side of our intellect. But the bees have them- 

 selves answered the objection that Messrs. Kirby and Spence 

 advanced. Scarcely had it been formulated when another 

 naturalist, Andrew Knight, having covered the bark of some 

 diseased trees with a kind of cement made of turpentine 

 and wax, discovered that his bees were entirely renouncing 

 the collection of propolis, and exclusively using this unknown 

 matter, which they had quickly tested and adopted, and 



