56 
BRITISH BEES. 
disclosed bee, without other teaching than that of the 
intuitive faculty, where to find its food, and how to 
build its abode. It directs it to the satisfying its ma¬ 
terial needs, and instructs it to provide for its offspring, 
and to protect them whilst in their nidus; the impulse 
to which follows immediately upon the satisfaction of 
the sexual desire, to which it is the seal. 
If it be memory that guides the bee from its wide 
wanderings back to its home, this then becomes an at¬ 
tribute to the faculty. Instinct indicates to them their 
enemies, and the wrongs these may intend, and shows 
them how they may be repulsed or evaded. In some of 
its operations it seems to be of a more perfect capacity 
than the operative faculty of human intelligence. 
The senses evidently possessed by our insects are 
sight, feeling, taste, and smell, but whether they hear we 
cannot know, although the antennse have been supposed 
to be its organ, for the apparent responsiveness of these 
to loud and sudden sounds, may equally result from the 
agitations of the air these produce. Their possession of 
touch, taste, and smell, are implied from what has been 
observed. 
They certainly exercise a will, evinced by their power 
of discrimination, which decides what is salutary and 
what is noxious; and the passions are exemplified in 
their revenge, their sexual love, and their affection for 
their offspring, the latter being exhibited in their un¬ 
remitting labour and careful provision for them, although 
they are never to see them. If there be any precedence 
in the order of the relative quality and distinction of the 
bees, it will be shown in the degree of superiority with 
which this function is accomplished. The perfection of 
this function we see progressively maturing as it passes 
