The Life of the Bee 
generally among the bees, they would end 
by detecting the pitfall, and by taking 
steps to elude it. They have mastered 
the intricacies of the movable comb, of 
the sections that compel them to store 
their surplus honey in little boxes sym- 
metrically piled; and in the case of the 
still more extraordinary innovation of 
foundation wax, where the cells are indi- 
cated only by a slender circumference 
of wax, they are able at once to grasp 
the advantages this new system presents ; 
they most carefully extend the wax, and 
thus, without loss of time or labour, 
construct perfect cells. So long as the 
event that confronts them appear not 
a snare devised by some cunning and 
malicious god, the bees may be trusted 
always to discover the best, nay, the only 
human, solution. Let me cite an in- 
stance ; an event, that, though occurring 
in nature, is still in itself wholly abnor- 
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