The Progress of the Race 
might also be termed the “insatiable argu- 
ment,” is exceedingly dangerous, and, if 
applied to man, would take us very far. 
Examine it closely, and you find that it 
emanates from the “mere common sense”’ 
which is often so harmful; the “common 
sense” that replied to Galileo: ‘ The earth 
does not turn, for I can see the sun move in 
the sky, rise in the morning and sink in the 
evening; and nothing can prevail over the 
testimony of my eyes.” Common sense 
makes an admirable, and necessary, back- 
ground for the mind; but unless it be 
watched by a lofty disquiet, ever ready to 
remind it, when occasion demand, of the 
infinity of its ignorance, it dwindles into the 
mere routine of the baser side of our intel- 
lect. But the bees have themselves answered 
the objection that Messrs. Kirby and Spence 
advanced. Scarcely had it been formulated 
when another naturalist, Andrew Knight, 
having covered the bark of some diseased 
trees with a kind of cement made of turpen- 
tine and wax, discovered that his bees were 
entirely renouncing the collection of propolis, 
and exclusively using this unknown matter, 
299 
