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LETTER XIX. 

 SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 

 PERFECT SOCIETIES — continued, (THE HIVE-BEE,) 



The glory of an all-wise and omnipotent Creator, you will 

 acknowledge, is wonderfully manifested by the varied pro- 

 ceedings 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 mellifica) 1 , 

 and which I am next to lay before you. Of all the insect 

 associations, there are none that have more excited the atten- 

 tion 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 know- 

 ledge they acquired was at all equivalent to the years that 

 were spent in the attainment of it may be doubted; for, 

 were it so, 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 disco- 

 veries 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 cir- 

 culated 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 



1 Apis ** e. I. K. 

 H 4 



