The Progress of the Race 



that are not susceptible of immediate 



proof; and of such facts we will only 



rapidly refer to some of the more sig- 

 nificant. 



[lOO] 



Let us consider first of all the most 

 important and most radical improvement, 

 one that in the case of man would have 

 called for prodigious labour : the external 

 protection of the community. 



The bees do not, like ourselves, dwell 

 in towns free to the sky, and exposed to 

 the caprice of rain and storm, but in cities 

 entirely covered with a protecting envel- 

 ope. In a state of nature, however, in 

 an ideal climate, this is not the case. If 

 they listened only to their essential in- 

 stinct, they would construct their combs 

 in the open air. In the Indies, the Apis 

 Dorsata will not eagerly seek hollow trees, 

 or a hole in the rocks. The swarm wiU 

 373 



