The Life of the Bee 
males? Would they not risk the destruction 
of their species? Are we to believe that 
there are intentions in nature that it is 
dangerous to understand too clearly, fatal 
to follow with too much ardour; and that 
it is one of her desires that we should not 
divine, and follow, all her desires? Is 
it not possible that herein may lie one 
of the perils of the human race? We too 
are aware of unconscious forces within us, 
that would appear to demand the reverse 
of what our intellect urges. And this 
intellect of ours, that, as a rule, its own 
boundary reached, knows not whither to go 
—can it be well that it should join itself to 
these forces, and add to them its unexpected 
weight ? 
81 
Have we the right to conclude, from the 
dangers of parthenogenesis, that nature is not 
always able to proportion the means to the 
end; and that what she intends to preserve 
is preserved at times by means of pre- 
cautions she has to contrive against her 
own precautions, and often through foreign 
228 
