OF INSECTS. 
187 
the comb, and put into jars, it runs into fermentation, with 
a much less degree of heat than what takes place in a 
hive. This may be reckoned a nicety; but, independently 
of any nicety in the matter, I would ask, what could the 
bee do with the honey if it had not the wax? how, at least, 
could it store it up for winter? The wax, therefore, an¬ 
swers a purpose with respect to the honey; and the honey 
constitutes that purpose with respect to the wax. This is 
the relation between them. But the two substances, 
though together of the greatest use, and without each 
other of little, come from a different origin. The bee finds 
the honey, but makes the wax. The honey is lodged in 
the nectaria of flowers, and probably undergoes little alter¬ 
ation; is merely collected: whereas the wax is a ductile, te¬ 
nacious paste, made out of a dry powder, not simply by 
kneading it with a liquid, but by a digestive process in the 
body of the bee. What account can be rendered of facts 
so circumstanced, but that the animal, being intended to 
feed upon honey, was, by a peculiar external configuration, 
enabled to procure it? that, moreover, wanting the honey 
when it could not be procured at all, it was farther endued 
with the no less necessary faculty of constructing reposi¬ 
tories for its preservation? which faculty, it is evident, must 
depend primarily, upon the capacity of providing suitable 
materials. Two distinct functions go to make up the 
ability. First, the power in the bee, with respect to wax, 
of loading the farina of flowers upon its thighs. Microsco¬ 
pic observers speak of the spoon-shaped appendages with 
which the thighs of bees are beset for this very purpose; 
but, inasmuch as the art and will of the bee may be sup¬ 
posed to be concerned in this operation, there is, secondly, 
that which doth not rest in art or will—a digestive faculty 
which converts the loose powder into a stiff substance. 
This is a just account of the honey and the honey-comb; and 
this account, through every part, carries a creative intelli¬ 
gence along with it. 
The sting also of the bee has this relation to the honey, 
that it is necessary for the protection of a treasure which 
invites so many robbers. 
III. Our business is with mechanism. In the panorpci 
tribe of insects, there is a forceps in the tail of the male 
insect, with which he catches and holds the female. [PI. 
XXXIII. fig. 3.] Are a pair of pincers more mechanical 
than this provision in its structure? or is any structure 
more clear and certain in its design? 
