THE HONEY-BEE. 
115 
the works of the Bee demonstrate an intelligence, or, 
if we please, an instinct superior to that of most ani- 
mals ; and what is this instinct hut the teaching of 
the Almighty — a manifestation, even in the organiza- 
tion of a creature so unimportant as a tiny fly — of his 
eternal wisdom, which can render an insect of the 
earth an object of wonder to maw himself, with all 
his boasted endowments ; and which, while It guides 
the planets in their courses, and sustains and upholds 
innumerable myriads of rational and immortal beings, 
directs the minutest animalcule to do those things 
that are necessary to the preservation and comfort of 
its existence. 
On the different substances found in a hive — 
Honey, Wax, Farina or Pollen, and Propolis . — 
Honey is well known to be a vegetable product, 
secreted in the nectaries at the base of the corolbe 
of flowers. It lias been supposed by some writers 
to be the elemental principle of all vegetables, with- 
out exception, and indispensable to their existence ; 
although there is, perhaps, no sufficient evidence of 
the saccharine matter of plants being in all cases con- 
vertible into honey. As one of its secondary uses, 
it seems destined by nature for the food of bees ; and 
these industrious collectors fail not to appropriate the 
rich liquid. Sweeping the hollow of the honey-cup 
with their little probosees, the little skilful chemists 
eagerly imbibe the saccharine juices as they exude 
from the nectarium, receive them into the globular 
honey-bag, which forms their anterior stomach, and 
hurrying homewards with their precious load, dis- 
