86 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



a proper consistency by her assiduous exertions. In 

 some respects she is more skilful even than our 

 paper-makers, for she takes care to retain her fibres 

 of sufficient length, by which she renders her paper 

 as strong as she requires. Many manufacturers of 

 the present day cut their material into small bits, and 

 thus produce a rotten article. One great distinction 

 between good and bad paper is its toughness ; and 

 this difference is invariably produced by the fibre of 

 which it is composed being long, and therefore tough ; 

 or short, and therefore friable. 



The wasp has been labouring at her manufacture 

 of paper, from her first creation, with precisely the 

 same instruments and the same materials ; and her 

 success has been unvarying. Her machinery is 

 very simple, and therefore it is never out of order. 

 She learns nothing, and she forgets nothing. Men, 

 from time to time, lose their excellence in particular 

 arts, and they are slow in finding out real improve- 

 ments. Such improvements are often the effect of ac- 

 cident. Paper is now manufactured very extensively 

 by machinery, in all its stages ; and thus, instead of 

 a single sheet being made by hand, a stream of paper 

 is poured out, which would form a roll large enough 

 to extend round the globe^ if such a length were de- 

 sirable. The inventors of this machinery, Messrs. 

 Fourdrinier, it is said, spent the enormous sum 

 of 40,000/. in vain attempts to render the machine 

 capable of determining with precision the width of 

 the roll ; and, at last, accomplished their object, 

 at the suggestion of a bystander, by a strap re- 

 volving upon an axis, at a cost of three shillings 

 and sixpence. Such is the difference between the 

 workings of human knowledge and experience, and 

 those of animal instinct. We proceed slowly and in 

 the dark — but our course is not bounded by a nar- 

 row line, for it seems difficult to say what is the per- 



