DEPTH RHR Xx. 
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
PERFECT SOCIETIES CONCLUDED. 
HAvING given you a history sufficiently ample of the 
queen or female bee, I shall next add some account of 
the drone or male bee; but this will not detain you long, 
since, “ to be born and die” is nearly the sum total of 
their story. Much abuse, from the earliest times, has 
been lavished upon this description of the inhabitants of 
the hive, and their indolence and gluttony have become 
proverbial.—Indeed, at first sight, it seems extraordi- 
nary that seven or eight hundred individuals should be 
supported at the public expense, and to common ap- 
pearance do nothing all the while that may be thought 
to earn their living. But the more we look into nature, 
the more we discover the truth of that common axiom, 
—that nothing is made in vain.—Creative Wisdom can- 
not be caught at fault. ‘Therefore, where we do not at 
present perceive the reasons of things, instead of cavil- 
ling at what we do not understand, we ought to adore 
in silence, and wait patiently till the veil is removed 
which, in any particular instance, conceals its final cause 
from our sight. The mysteries of nature are gradually 
