356 
LETTER XIX. 
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
PERFECT SOCIETIES — continued. (THE HIVE-BEE.) 
Tne glory of an all-wise and omnipotent Creator, you will acknowledge, 
is wonderfully manifested by the varied proceedings of those social tribes 
of which I have lately treated ; but it shines forth with a brightness still 
more intense in the instincts that actuate the common hive-bee (Apis mel- 
lifica®), and which I am next to lay before you. Of all the insect associa- 
tions, there are none that have more excited the attention and admiration 
of mankind in every age, or been more universally interesting, than the 
colonies of these little useful creatures, Both Greek and Roman writers 
are loud in their praise ; nay, some philosophers were so enamoured of 
them, that, as I observed before, they devoted a large portion of their 
time to the study of their history. Whether the knowledge they acquired 
was at all equivalent to the years that were spent in the attainment of it, 
may be doubted ; for, were it s0, it is probable that Aristotle and Pliny 
would have given a clearer and more consistent account of the inhabitants 
of the hive than they have done. Indeed, had their discoveries borne any 
proportion to the long tract of time asserted to have been employed by 
some in the study of these insects, they ought to have rivalled, and even 
exceeded, those of the Reaumurs and Hubers of our own age. 
Numerous, and wonderful for their absurdity, were the errors and 
fables which many of the ancients adopted and circulated with respect to 
the generation and propagation of these busy insects. For instance, — 
that they were sometimes produced from the putrid bodies of oxen and 
lions ; the kings and leaders from the brain, and the vulgar herd from the 
flesh; —a fable, derived probably from swarms of bees having been ob- 
served, as in the case of Samson %, to take possession of the dried car- 
casses of these animals, or, perhaps, from the myriads of flies (for the 
vulgar do not readily distinguish flies from bees) often generated in their 
putrescent flesh, They adopted another notion equally absurd, — that 
these insects collect their young progeny from the blossoms and foliage of 
certain plants. Amongst others, the Cerinthus, the reed, and the olive- 
tree had this virtue of generating infant bees attributed to them.’ These 
specimens of ancient credulity will suffice, : 
But do not think that all the ancients imbibed such monstrous opinions. 
Aristotle’s sentiments seem to have been much more correct, and not very 
wide of what some of our best modern apiarists have advanced. Ac- 
1 Apis. * * . 1. K. 2 Judges, xiv. 8, 9. 
5 See Aristot. Hist. Animal, 1. y. c. 22. ; Virgil, Georgia 1. iv. ; and Mouflet, 12, 
