evil, (or ominous) to Mankind, as hath 
been often obferved from many accidents 
that have happened or fucceeded after 
their unulual a&ionsrwhich made the Poet, 
and queftionlefs many others in that Age, 
take them to be divine, as well as the Mu- 
fes Birds j Elfe would he not, after a repeti¬ 
tion of feveral of their extraordinary Pro¬ 
perties, have fang, 
Hk qiiidam fignk^ &c. 
From thefe Examples, fome there are 
maintain, That Bees defcend from a Ce- 
leftialftrain, and Heavenly Race5 
After him Pliny efteem’d their manner, 
time, and place of fettling, as Augures or 
Prefagcs } for they fometimes fettled a- 
mongft Houfes, or on the Temples of 
their Gods, as you may read in his nth 
Book ofhis Natural Hiftory, Cap. 17. But 
whether they portended good or evil, is 
not yet clear from Hiftorical Obfervati- 
ons, For the feme Pliny relates that a 
fwarm of Bees fettled within the very 
Camp of General Drttfus , the very feme 
day, when he obtain’d that notable Vi&o- 
rv at Arhalo. Yet may you read in Lucius 
Floras his Roman Hiftory, Lib . 2. Cap. 6 . 
That 
