THE PROGRESS OF THE RACE 225 



is, probably, that the race has grown feebler, that the ten- 

 dency to excessive swarming has been hereditarily developed, 

 and that to-day almost all our bees, particularly the black 

 ones, swarm too often. For some years now the new 

 methods of " movable " apiculture have gone some way 

 towards correcting this dangerous habit ; and when we reflect 

 how rapidly artificial selection acts on most of our domestic 

 animals, such as oxen, dogs, pigeons, sheep, and horses, it 

 is permissible to believe that we shall before long have a 

 race of bees that will entirely renounce natural swarming 

 and devote all their activity to the collection of honey and 

 pollen. 



113 

 But for the other faults : might not an intelligence 

 that possessed a clearer consciousness of the aim of common 

 life emancipate itself from them ? Much might be said 

 concerning these faults, which emanate sometimes from what 

 is unknown to us in the hive, at others from swarming and 

 its resultant errors, for which we are partly to blame. But 

 let every man judge for himself, and, having seen what has 

 gone before, let him grant or deny intelligence to the bees, 

 as he may think proper. I am not eager to defend them. 

 It seems to me that in many circumstances they give proof 

 of understanding, but my curiosity would not be less were 

 all that they do done blindly. It is interesting to watch 

 a brain possessed of extraordinary resources within itself 

 wherewith it may combat cold and hunger, death, time, 

 space and solitude, all the enemies of matter that springs 



2 F 



