Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

gathering this precious nourishment, by which both kings and men of low degree are brought
to health! How great is the art and cunning she displays in the construction of the store
houses which are destined to receive the honey! After having spread the wax like a thin
membrane, she distributes it in contiguous compartments which, weak though they are, by
their number and by their mass, sustain the whole edifice. Each cell in fact holds to the one
next to it, and is separated by a thin partition; we thus see two or three galleries of cells built
one upon the other. The bee takes care not to make one vast cavity, for fear it might break
under the weight of the liquid, and allow it to escape. See how the discoveries of geometry
are mere by-works to the wise bee! 1661
The rows of honey-comb are all hexagonal with equal sides. They do not bear on each
other in straight lines, lest the supports should press on empty spaces between and give way;
but the angles of the lower hexagons serve as foundations and bases to those which rise
above, so as to furnish a sure support to the lower mass, and so that each cell may securely
keep the liquid honey. 1662
5. How shall we make an exact review of all the peculiarities of the life of birds? During
the night cranes keep watch in turn; some sleep, others make the rounds and procure a quiet
slumber for their companions. After having finished his duty, the sentry utters a cry, and
goes to sleep, and the one who awakes, in his turn, repays the security which he has enjoyed.
1663 You will see the same order reign in their flight. One leads the way, and when
it has guided the flight of the flock for a certain time, it passes to the rear, leaving to the one
who comes after the care of directing the march.
The conduct of storks comes very near intelligent reason. In these regions the same
season sees them all migrate. They all start at one given signal. And it seems to me that our
1661 cf. Ælian. v. 13. γεωμετρίαν δὲ καὶ κάλλη σχημάτων καὶ ὡραίας πλάσεις αὐτῶν ἄνευ τέχνης τε καὶ
κανόνων καὶ τοῦ καλουμένου ὑπὸ τῶν σοφῶν διαβήτου, τὸ κάλλιστον σχημάτων ἑξαγωνόν τε καὶ ἑξάπλευρον
καὶ ἰσογώνιον ἀποδείκνυνται αἱ μέλιτται.
1662 The mathematical exactness of the bee is described by Darwin in terms which make it even more mar-
vellous than it appeared to Basil. “The most wonderful of all known instincts, that of the hive bee, may be ex-
plained by natural selection having taken advantage of numerous slight modifications of simpler instincts; nat-
ural selection having by slow degrees more and more perfectly led the bees to sweep equal spheres at a given
distance from each other in a double layer, and to build up and excavate the wax along the planes of intersection.”
Origin of Species, ii. 255, ed. 1861. According to this view the beings from whom hive bees, as we know them,
are descended were gifted with certain simple instincts capable of a kind of hereditary unconscious education,
resulting in a complex instinct which constructs with exact precision the hexagonal chamber best fitted for the
purpose it is designed to fulfil, and then packs it. And it is interesting to note how the great apostle of abstract
selection personifies it as a “taker” of “advantage,” and a “leader.”
1663 Arist., Hist. An. ix. 10.
The creation of fowl and water animals.
337
98