The Life of the Bee 
sumed before death; and incapable there- 
fore of achieving the first stage of its 
transformation, it dies in its turn, adher- 
ing to the skin of the egg, or adding itself, 
in the sugary liquid, to the number of 
the drowned. 
[78] 
This case, though rarely to be followed 
so closely, is not unique in natural history. 
We have here, laid bare before us, the 
struggle between the conscious will of the 
triongulin, that seeks to live, and the 
obscure and general will of nature, that 
not only desires that the triongulin should 
live, but is anxious even that its life should 
be improved, and fortified, to a degree 
beyond that to which its own will impels 
it. But, through some strange inadver- 
tence, the amelioration nature imposes sup- 
presses the life of even the fittest, and the 
Sitaris Colletes would have long since dis- 
278 
