The Foundation of the City 
superficial assurance; and forgetting that 
the most trivial secret of the non-human 
object we behold in nature connects more 
closely perhaps with the profound enigma 
of our origin and our end, than the secret 
of those of our passions that we study 
the most eagerly and most passionately. 
62 
And I will pass over too—in my desire 
that this essay shall not become too didactic 
—the remarkable instinct that induces the 
bees at times to thin and demolish the ex- 
tremity of their combs when these are to be 
enlarged or lengthened; though it must be 
admitted that in this case the ‘‘ blind build- 
ing instinct” fails signally to account for 
their demolishing in order that they may 
rebuild, or undoing what has been done that 
it may be done afresh, and this time with 
more regularity. I will content myself also 
with a mere reference to the remarkable 
experiment that enables us, with the aid 
of a piece of glass, to compel the bees to 
start their combs at a right angle; when they 
169 
