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LETTER XX. 

 SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



PERFECT SOCIETIES — concluded. 



Having given you a history sufficiently ample of the queen 

 or female bee, I shall next add some account of the drone or 

 male bee ; but this will not detain you long, since "to be 

 born and die" is nearly the sum total of their story. Much 

 abuse, from the earliest times, has been lavished upon this 

 description of the inhabitants of the hive, and their indolence 

 and gluttony have become proverbial. Indeed, at first sight, 

 it seems extraordinary that seven or eight hundred individuals 

 should be supported at the public expense, and to common 

 appearance do nothing all the while, that may be thought to 

 earn their living. But the more we look into nature, the 

 more we discover the truth of that common axiom, — that 

 nothing is made in vain. Creative Wisdom cannot be 

 caught at fault. Therefore, where we do not at present perceive 

 the reasons of things, instead of cavilling at what we do not 

 understand, we ought to adore in silence, and wait patiently 

 till the veil is removed which, in any particular instance, con- 

 ceals its final cause from our sight. The mysteries of nature are 

 gradually opened to us, one truth making way for the discovery 

 of another : but still there will always be in nature, as well 

 as in revelation, even in those things that fall under our daily 

 observation, mysteries to exercise our faith and humility ; so 

 that we may always reply to the caviller, — " Thine own 

 things and those that are grown up with thee hast thou not 

 known ; how then shall thy vessel comprehend the way of 

 the Highest?" 



Various have been the conjectures of naturalists, even in 

 very recent times, with respect to the fertilisation of the eggs 

 of the bee. Some have supposed, — and the number of males 

 seemed to countenance the supposition, — that this was effected 



