68 
THE IIIVK AND HONEY-BEE, 
change would not be more instantaneous than that pro- 
duced when the bees received the brood-comb ! 
The Orientals call the honey-bee, '■'■Deborah: She that 
speaketh.” Would that this little insect might speak, in 
words more eloquent than those of man’s device, to those 
who reject any of the doctrines of revealed religion, with 
the assertion that they are so improbable, as to labor 
under a fatal a priori objection. Do not all the steps in 
the development of a queen from a worker-egg, labor 
under the very same objection? and have they not, for 
this reason been always regarded, by many bee-keepers, 
as unworthy of belief? If the favorite argument of infi- 
dels will not stand the test, when applied to the wonders 
of the bee-hive, is it entitled to serious weight, when, by 
objecting to religious truths, they arrogantly take to task 
the Infinite Jehovah for what lie has been pleased to do 
or to teach ? With no more latitude than is claimed by 
such objectors, it were easy to prove that a man is under 
no obligation to believe any of the wonders of the bee-hive, 
even although he is himself an intelligent eye-witness to 
their substantial truth. 
