THE DRONE. 87 



reject some of the doctrines of revealed religion, is not 

 prompted by a true philosophy. Neither our ignorance of 

 all the facts necessary to their full elucidation, nor our ina- 

 bility to harmonize these facts in their mutual relations and 

 dependencies, will justify us in rejecting any truth which 

 God hath seen fit to reveal, either in the book of Nature, 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 from its 

 fatal course, storms and whirlwinds will thicken in gloom on 

 his " voyage of life ; " no "Sun of Righteousness" will ever 

 brighten for him the expanse of dreary waters ; no favoring 

 gales will waft his shattered bark to a peaceful haven. 



The thoughtful reader will require no apology for this 

 moralizing strain, nor blame a clergyman, if sometimes for- 

 getting to speak as the mere naturalist, he endeavors to find 



" Tongues in trees, hooks in running brooks, 

 " Sermons in ' bees,'' and ' God ' in every thing." 



(103.) 



196. To return to the attempt to account for the exist- 

 ence of so many drones. If a farmer persists in what is 

 called " breeding in and in," that is, without changing the 

 blood, the ultimate degeneracy of his stock is the conse- 

 quence.* This law extends, as far as we know, to all ani- 

 mal life, man himself not being exempt from its influence. 

 Have we any reason to suppose that the bee is an exception? 

 or that degeneracy would not ensue, unless some provision 

 were made to counteract the tendency to " in-and-in breed- 

 ing?" If fecundation had taken place in the hive, the 

 queen would have been impregnated by drones from a com- 



* In the above, Mr. Langstroth refers to indiscriminate breeding. In-and-in 

 breeding, by selection, intensifies certain qualities, such as the development of 

 fat, or of mnsole, bnt it also intensifies the defects, generally causing a de- 

 crease of vitality or of health in the race. 



