408 



INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



complexness and yet regularity and efficiency of a great es- 

 tablishment, such as the Bank of England or the Post Office, 

 without marvelling that even human reason can put together, 

 with so little friction and such slight deviations from correct- 

 ness, machines whose wheels are composed not of wood and 

 iron, but of fickle mortals of a thousand different inclinations, 

 powers, and capacities. But if such establishments be sur- 

 prising even with reason for their prime mover, how much 

 more so is a hive of bees whose proceedings are guided by 

 their instincts alone ! We can conceive that the sensations 

 of hunger experienced on awaking in the morning should 

 excite into action their instinct of gathering honey. But all 

 are hungry ; yet all do not rush out in search of flowers. 

 What sensation is it that detains a portion of the hive at home, 

 unmindful of the gnawings of an empty stomach, busied in 

 domestic arrangements, until the return of their roving com- 

 panions ? Of those that fly abroad, what conception can we 

 form of the cause which, while one set is gathering honey or 

 pollen, leads another company to load their legs with pellets 

 of propolis ? Are we to say that the instinct of the former is 

 excited by one sensation, that of the latter by another ? But 

 why should one sensation predominate in one set of bees, 

 while another takes the lead in a second ? — or how is it 

 that these different instincts are called up precisely in the 

 degree which the actual and changing state of things in the 

 hive requires? Of those which remain at home, what is 

 it that determines in one party the instinct of building cells to 

 prevail ; in another that of ventilating the hive ; in a third 

 that of feeding the young brood ? For my own part, I confess 

 that the more I reflect on this subject, and contrast the di- 

 versity of the means with the regularity and uniformity of 

 the end, the more I am lost in astonishment. The effects of 

 instinct seem even more wonderful than those of reason, in 

 the same manner as the consentaneous movements of a mighty 

 and divided army, which, though under the command of 

 twenty generals, and from the most distant quarters, should 

 meet at the assigned spot at the very hour fixed upon, would 

 be more surprising than the steam-moved operations, however 

 complex, of one of Boulton's mints. 



