Genus VIII -slpis. The Bee , 
We are now come to a tribe of the mod ufefut of in” 
lefts, whofe hiftory has been the fnbjeft ot many vo- 
luines. Almoft every writer on entymology has made 
the manners and economy of thefe animals a confiderable 
part of his work ; and many authors have treated of 
them, who have entered into no other department of na- 
tural hiftory *. Several of thefe, catching that enthufi- 
afm which is natural in contemplating creatures whofe 
inftinfts are truly wonderful, feem to fet no bounds to 
the eulogies they have lavilbed upon them. If you be- 
lieve them, there is hardly any fort of intelligence or 
moral virtue, which bees do not poffefs ; and the whole 
of their manners arefuch as afford us but too juft caufes of 
blufhing at our own. The celebrated Reaumur , in de- 
tailing the economy of thefe animals, an objeft to which 
he applied himfelf with a perfeverance fuperior to all 
mankind, has abftrafted much of the marvellous from 
their hiftory ; but in return, he has enlarged it with 
many fafts and obfervations formerly unknown, and 
which fucceeding experiments have feldom contradicted : 
The following brief account of thefe infefts, in general, 
lefts upon his authority. 
There 
* ■ 
* Among the moft judicious nsturalifts who have written upon this 
fubjedt, we may rank the following, viz. Mouffet, Mcrian,. Aldrovandas* 
Jobnfton, Charleton, Ray, Dale, and Reaumur. 
