380 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOIl THEIR YOUNG. 



support the comb for nearly three days ! At the end 

 of this period they had prepared a sufficiency of wax 

 with which they built pillars that kept it in a firm posi- 

 tion : but by some accident afterwards these got dis- 

 placed, when they had again recourse to their former 

 manoeuvre for supplying their place, and this operation 

 they perseveringly continued until M. Huber, pitying 

 their hard case, relieved them by fixing the object of 

 their attention firmly on the table*. 



It is impossible not to be struck with the reflection 

 that this most singular fact is inexplicable on the suppo- 

 sition that insects are impelled to their operations by a 

 blind instinct alone. How could mere machines have 

 thus provided for a case which in a state of nature has 

 probably never occurred to ten nests of humble-bees 

 since the creation ? If in this instance these little ani- 

 mals were not guided by a process of reasoning, what 

 is the distinction between reason and instinct? How 

 could the most profound architect have better adapted 

 the means to the end — how more dexterously shared up 

 a tottering edifice, until his beams and his props were in 

 readiness ? 



"With respect to the operations of the termites in rear- 

 ing their young I have not much to observe. All that 

 is known is, that they build commodious cells for then- 

 reception, into which the eggs of the queen are conveyed 

 by the workers as soon as laid, and where when hatched 

 they are assiduously fed by them until they are able to 

 provide for themselves. 



a Linn, Trans, vi. 247 &c 



