The Progress of the Race 
that are not susceptible of immediate 
proof; and of such facts we will only 
rapidly refer to some of the more sig- 
nificant. 
[100] 
Let us consider first of all the most 
important and most radical improvement, 
one that in the case of man would have 
called for prodigious labour: the external 
protection of the community. 
The bees do not, like ourselves, dwell 
in towns free to the sky, and exposed to 
the caprice of rain and storm, but in cities 
entirely covered with a protecting envel- 
ope. In a state of nature, however, in 
an ideal climate, this is not the case. If 
they listened only to their essential in- 
stinct, they would construct their combs 
in the open air. In the Indies, the Apis 
Dorsata will not eagerly seek hollow trees, 
or a hole in the rocks. The swarm will 
373 
