32 INTERNAL ANAYOMY OF INSECTS. 
The same objection applies to this as to so many other 
metaphysical theories, that it is not adequately supported 
by facts; and all theories not so supported are injurious 
to science in proportion as their plausibility is greater, by 
leading the student to relax in that observation of nature 
and attentive study of the instincts of animals, on which 
alone sound hypothesis on this subject can be ulti- 
mately founded. 
I shall conclude these remarks on the nature of in- 
stinct with a few observations as to the circumstances in 
which insects may be supposed to be guided by this fa- 
culty, and those in which znéellect seems to direct them. 
The bee, when it takes its flight to a field where flowers 
abound, is governed by intellect in the use of its senses ; 
for these are given to it as guzdes: and when it arrives 
there, they direct it to the flowers, and enable it to as- 
certain which contains the treasures it is in search of; 
but having made this discovery, its instinct teaches it to 
imbibe the nectar and load its hind legs with pollen.— 
Again: its senses, aided by memory, enable it to retrace 
its way to the hive, where instinct once more impels 
it in its various operations. So that when we ascribe 
a certain degree of intellect to these animals, we do 
not place them upon a par with man; since all the 
most wonderful parts of their economy, and those ma- 
nipulations that exceed all our powers, we admit not 
to be the contrivance of the animals themselves, but. 
the necessary results of faculties implanted in their 
constitution at the first creation by their Maxer. I 
may further repeat, that the mere fact of being en- 
dowed with the external organs of sense, proves a cer- 
tain degree of intellect in insects. For if in all their 
actions they were directed merely by their instinct, 
