228 The BOO K ‘EF 
the skeleton of the dead Lion, a proper place 
of reception for thofe little cleanly animals. 
We are not to imagine with the generality of 
mankind, that Bees at the time of their fwarm- 
ing fend out before them as it were fome of 
their nobles or courtires, to prepare lodgings 
fort he reft of the company ; by no means: the 
whole clufter feizes the firft opportunity of 
fixing themfelves, be it houfe or tree, or the 
corner of a wall, no matter whether high or 
low ; and if they do not find their fituation 
agreeable, or if no body comes with a hive 
to receive them, they foon fly off again, and 
fo ramble about from place to place, till they 
find of themfelves, or till fome one offers them, 
a convenient habitation. And thus it is pro- 
bable that Sampfon’s Bees had acted, till they 
at laft fettled in the Lion’s carcafe, where 
they built their combs, and depofited their ho- 
ney: God himfelf, who governs all things, 
and from whom this work, or, as the holy 
writings exprefs it, Sampfon’s conduct pro- 
ceeded, directing the motions of thefe little 
infects, fo as to afford a fubject for a riddle, 
‘and confequently a juft excufe for delivering 
his people. I had once an opportunity of 
obferving how irregular Bees will fwarrh, in 
a houfe belonging to Mr. John Oort, now 
nagiftrate at Nicuwenrode, that had greatly 
fuftered by fire. I found the fwarm in one of 
the remaining walls, where they had made 
both wax and honey; but their choice of this 
place was highly imprudent, for the hole by 
which they were to go in and out of their 
habitation was fo large, that they could not 
by any means keep off the winter's cold, and. 
their number alfo fo fmall, that they had not 
provided food enough to fubfift them at home 
on the fevere days when they could not go 
abroad. Sometimes I have feen fwarms of 
Bees hanging to the topmoft branches of the 
loftieft trees, and at other times, content with 
fo humble a fituation, that the clufter their 
fwarm formed in a manner touched the 
earth. bth 
It is. probable that the not rightly under- 
ftanding Sampfon’s adventure of the Lion, 
gave rife to the popular opinion of Bees {pring- 
ing from dead Lions, Oxen and Horfes ; and 
this opinion may have been confiderably 
ftrengthened, and indeed in a manner con- 
firmed, by the great number of Worms that 
are often found during the fummer months 
in the carcafles of fuch animals, efpecially as 
thefe Worms fomewhat refemble thofe pro- 
duced from the eggs of Bees. However midi- 
culous this opinion muft appear, many great 
men have not been afhamed to adopt and de- 
fend it. ‘The induftrious Goedaert has ven- 
tured to afcribe the origin of Bees to certain 
dunghill Worms, and the learned de Mei joins 
NSA Us ot 
with him in this opinion; though neither of 
them had any obfervation to ground their 
belief upon, but that of the external refem- 
blance between the Bee and a certain kind of 
Fly produced from thofe Worms. The mif- 
take of fuch authors fhould teach us to ufe 
great caution in our determinations concern- 
ing things which we have not thoroughly ex- 
amined, or at leaft to, defcribe them with all 
the circumftances obfervable in them. There- | 
fore, although this opinion of Bees iffuing from 
the carcaffes of fome other animals by the 
power of putrefaction, or by a tranfpofition of 
parts, be altogether abfurd, it has had not- 
withftanding many followers, who mutt have 
in a.manner fhut their eyes in order to em- 
brace it. But whoever will ‘attentively con- 
fider how many requifites there are for the 
due hatching of the Bee’s egg, and for that 
infect’s fubfiftance in the Worm ftate, as has: 
been particularly explained in the preceding 
pages ; whoever, I fay, confiders all this with 
the attention it deferves, cannot be at a lofs 
for a clue to deliver himfelf out of that la- 
byrinth of idle fancies, and unfupported fa- 
bles, which, entangled with one another like 
a gordian knot, have even to this day obfcured 
the beautiful fimplicity of this part of natural 
hiftory. Nor need we complain that by over- 
turning this fyftem, we lofe examples by 
which many moral precepts may be enforced ; 
there will remain a fufficient number of folid 
obfervations to anfwer the fame purpofe. Thus 
mutual love, friendly cohabitation, and unin- 
terrupted courfe of good offices, obfervable 
amongft Bees, who behave in all this as if 
they were actuated by chriftian principles, and 
lived in a real communication of all good things, 
with their induftry, by which their happinefs 
is conftantly encreafed, are powerful motives 
to engage us in the fame practices. It is this 
love, this communion and diligence, that go- 
verns, fupports, gives motion and life to their 
little republicks ; and if we contemplate the 
inftitutions of the primitive chriftians, we fhall 
find they lived in the fame manner. 
It is a difficult matter to determine any 
thing in regard to the period of life which 
nature has alotted thefe infects *; at leaft I 
muft own that I have not as yet been happy 
enough to hit upon any fatisfactory experi- 
ments on this head. Some perfons who have 
made Bees their ftudy, affirm as a certainty 
that working Bees live but one year, and lam 
not averfe to their opinion, though I do not 
think they have as yet any fure obfervations 
to ground it upon. On colleding all the 
Bees that die in a hive in one year, we find 
their number equal to that of the furviving. 
In autumn and winter, when the Bees neither 
fly abroad, nor carry their dead out of the 
* The Bee, which is fo able to defend itfelf in the perfect ftate, is, while in the condition of the Worm and Nymph, liable 
to deftruction by that mo contemptible creature the Mite. Millions of thefe get into the hive, whofe paflage would be def- 
perately defended againft larger affailants ; and they make their way into the cells and devour them. ‘This was firft obferved of 
4 kind of Bee that breeds in rotton willows, and the account is given at large in the Philofophical Tranfactions. It has fince 
been difcavered in the common kind; and the mifchief has been often done where it was not fufpected how. 
hive, 
