28 
THE HONEY-BEE. 
enthusiastic Virgil, stating, and probably adopting, a 
prevalent opinion, speaks of the Bee as “ having 
received a direct emanation from the divine intelli- 
gence.” After all this study, however, these enthu- 
siastic admirers have thrown hut little light on the 
real nature of this extraordinary insect ; and while 
they have handed down to us many judicious pre- 
cepts for its practical treatment, their disquisitions on 
its natural history can now only excite a smile. The 
chief cause of this failure may he fairly ascribed, 
perhaps, to the wont of those facilities for discovery 
which modern science has afforded, and by which 
the most hidden mysteries of Bee economy are ren- 
dered clear and palpable. A host of writers on the 
nature of the Bee appeared during the last century, 
who, availing themselves of the imnrovements in 
general science, made many interesting additions to 
our stock of knowledge on the subject. Swammer- 
dam, Mamldi, Reaumur, Bonnet, Sehirach, and more 
recently Huber on the Continent, and Thorley, Wild- 
man, Keys, Hunter, and Bonner, among ourselves, 
multiplied, a hundred-fold, the discoveries of Aris- 
totle, Columella, and Varo; and the vague conjec- 
tures and fabulous details of the latter philosophers, 
have been succeeded by rational research and dis- 
criminating experiment. But even in the investiga- 
tions of the first named writers, not excepting the 
most accurate and successful experimenter of them 
all, the indefatigable Huber, there are some obvious 
errors which longer experience and observation have 
been enabled to detect, and some questionable state* 
