NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 57 



THE PRODUCTION OF SO MANY DRONES NECESSARY, IN A 



STATE OF NATURE, TO PREVENT DEGENERACY FROM 



" IN AND IN BREEDING." 



I have never been able, by the reasons previously assigned, 

 fully to account for the necessity of such a large number of 

 drones. I have repeatedly queried, why impregnation might 

 not as well be effected in the hive, as on the wing, in the 

 open air. Two very obvious and important advantages 

 would have resulted from such an arrangement. 1st. A few 

 dozen drones would have sufficed for the wants of any 

 colony, even if, (as in tropical climates,) it swarmed half a 

 dozen times or oftener, in the same season. 2d. The young 

 Queens would not have been exposed to the risks they now 

 incur, in leaving the hive for fecundation. 



For a long time, I was unable to show how the existing 

 arrangement is best ; although I never doubted that there 

 must be a satisfactory reason, for this seeming imperfection. 

 To suppose otherwise, would be highly unphilosophical, 

 since we constantly see, as the circle of our knowledge en- 

 larges, many mysteries in nature, hitherto inexplicable, fully 

 cleared up. 



Let me here ask if the disposition which many students 

 of nature cherish to reject some of the doctrines of revealed 

 religion, is not equally unphilosophical. Neither our igno- 

 rance of all the facts necessary to their full elucidation, nor 

 our inability to harmonize these facts in their mutual rela- 

 tions and dependencies, will justify us in rejecting any truth 

 which God has seen fit to reveal, either in the book of na- 

 ture, or in His holy word. The man who would substitute 

 his own speculations for the divine teachings, has embarked, 

 without rudder or chart, pilot or compass, on an uncertain 

 ocean of theory and conjecture ; unless he turns his prow 



