The ial ST OR Yolo IN Sh Cur Ss, 
mag 
worthy attention. At prefent I fhall fay no- thofe particulars, which I have hitherto ad- 
thing more of thefe infects, being already too vanced. I fhall therefore conclude this trea~ 
much fatigued with obferving and defcribing tife, and proceed to the hiftory of Bees. 
Hass 7 Osa ore ok 5 
Or an accurate defcription of 
Their origin, generation, fex, ceconomy, labours and ule. 
O come hither, and behold the works of God: how wonderful he is in doing to= 
wards the children of men 
IN TROD 
L THOUGH the majefty of the 
immortal God is in its nature inacceffible 
to mortal eyes, his eternal power and divinity 
are moft clearly and evidently {een in all created 
beings: fome creatures, however, prefent the 
invifible God to our contemplation more plainly 
than others, as will appear from the fubfequent 
treatife. Since, therefore, the moft wife and 
great God has been gracioufly pleafed to blefs 
and crown my indefatigable and affiduous la- 
bours with fome degree of fuccefs, I hope that 
his infinite power and immenfe wifdom, as 
well as our own weaknefs, will be thereby 
made clearer than the light at noon; fo that 
‘whoever perufes this treatife, may find matter 
enough of wonder, and be led to proclaim and 
admire the magnificence and wifdom of God, 
and to blefs his inexhauftible bounty. If thefe 
pages, which only exhibit as it were the fha- 
dows of things, and extremely defective def 
criptions of the fecrets works of God, that are 
impenetrable and impoffible to be fully invefti- 
gated, fhould direct the reader to this true ufe of 
the refearches, 1 fhall think the pains I have 
taken, not only recompenfed, but allo fufficiently 
profperous and bleffed by the divine grace. 
If any one accurately confiders the difpofi- 
tion and ftructure of the fmalleft and largeft 
animals, and compares them one with another, 
he will fee that they agree not only in the 
above mentioned particulars, but alfo in that 
they {pring from like principles, which are eggs 
of their parents, as well in the {malleft as in 
the largeft animals : and as thefe eggs increafe 
and are perfected, as it were from very {mall 
and almoft invifible points, they, in the fame 
manner, come to the full period of their in- 
creafe in the fmalleft animals as in the largeft. 
Nor is there any creature excepted from this 
univerfal law of its origin, Since man alfo, 
the moft noble of all creatures, and who is a 
rational animal, has his origin or beginning 
Pfal: txvis. 6: 
Ur @yvPo1-6 <N; 
from an egg, and therefore cannot, in refpeét 
to his firft principle, prefer himfelf to the 
{malleft infects, or, with regard to his natural 
difpofition and {tructure, aflume to himfelf any 
fuperior dignity; in preference to the moft mean 
and contemptible creatures the Loufe or Mite. 
That this is moft certain in regard to the human 
fpecies, I have learned from experiment, in the 
year 1667; as did alfo the celebrated Van 
Home. ‘This may be feen in my book inti= 
tled, the miracles of nature. Further; it de« 
ferves notice, that as to the principles or rudi- 
ments of fmaller as well as larger animals, the 
former are more confpicuous, and more clearly 
difcernible in their firft fate than the latter; 
And further, fince God hath prefcribed certain 
limits of magnitude to the fmaller animals, be- 
yond which they cannot increafe, and which 
limits are probably fituated in the peculiar ttruc- 
ture, or from the weaknefs of the heart, by 
the power of which all the other parts muft be 
extended againft the gravity of the atmofphere ; 
the {mall animals, therefore, while in embryo, 
may be much more perfect than the larger. 
To come nearer to my purpofe; as I pro- 
pofed in my book of infects publifhed in the 
year 1669, at fome other time to treat ex- 
prefsly on the ftructure of infects, and in that 
work to give the particular hiftory of Bees ; 
faying, by way of anticipation, that the king, 
as commonly called, was a female, the drone 
a male, and that the common Bees belonged to 
neither fex; I fhall, to keep my promife with 
the publick, now treat particularly of the ftruc-. 
ture, difpofition, and principles or rudiments of 
thefe three creatures, which are different jin 
themfelves, but of the fame fpecies. I thall 
alfo occafionally interfperfe fome other obferva- 
tions on the parts of fome other infeéts, the 
whole conftructions of which I thall, with the 
divine favour, at fome other time defcribe more 
at large. 
Qn 
