On

Hills, in which all the bees were engaged either actively or as spectators, and it was carried on with a ferocious obstinacy unexampled in the annals of apiarian warfare. After much desultory fighting, a general engagement took place, which lasted two days, when upwards of three millions were left dead upon the field of battle: the victory was still doubtful, although one of the contending parties retired. the third day the army that had quitted the field returned, when the contest was renewed with redoubled vigour, and deeds of heroism were performed, which, if they had not inflicted misery upon others, might have been worthy of imitation, and esteemed glorious. As the sun went down, the raging of the battle ceased, but the stillness of the night was disturbed by the cries and the shrieks of the wounded. Soon after midnight, when those who had escaped without wounds were reposing after their toils and dangers, they were suddenly awoke by a tremulous motion of the hills; a light mist was seen to arise between the two armies; and in the midst there appeared a human form of majestic and graceful stature, with a countenance indicating some concern, but beaming with mildness and intelligence.

"You behold," said the figure," the spirit of Allan Ramsay: ever and anon I haunt my favourite streams

and verdant hills, chosen by me when sojourning on earth as the suitable abode of innocence; but of late these peaceful scenes have been disturbed by tumults before unheard-of, and this night I walk the hills to learn the ominous cause. But alas! that cause is too apparent in this melancholy spectacle of the dying and the dead. Was it for this that the Mantuan bard sung your praises ?-has not the economy of the hive been held up to the world as the model of a perfect commonwealth? Whence then this direful change? and where in the whole range of animated nature can you discover a single instance of beings of the same species destroying each other?"

The bees were much agitated by the appearance of this unexpected mediator, and more so by his animated and pointed address. They ran to and fro in great consternation. At length there was a general cry for Orpheus to stand forth and vindicate their policy. The ranks opened and permitted him to pass, with the same respect and attention as they pay to the queen bees.

were wont to

"You have demanded, most illustrious and gentle spirit," said Orpheus, " in what order of the creation we can observe an example of individuals destroying others of the same species. It will, we presume, be deemed sufficient if we adduce one only, since that

example will be found in a class of beings claiming the highest pre-eminence, and holding all others in subjection. You will perceive that we refer to that order of which you were a distinguished ornament, and exempt from the general failing, when your lyre was sweetly strung in the vale of Pentland"."

The spirit, gracefully extending his arm, spoke as follows: "Attend, Orpheus, and you misguided bees, to what I shall unfold.-As far back as the records of time allow us to trace, we discover a marked difference between man and the rest of the animal creation each species of bird builds its nest in a peculiar manner, and one generation following another, displays the same undeviating instincta; nor have they

7 Allan Ramsay had certainly forgotten some of the occurrences on the surface of the globe; for spiders will sometimes destroy each other, and rats also have evinced the same propensity; so that we know of three instances at least: viz. spiders, rats, and men! He is, however, not singular in this opinion; for the amiable Fenelon has remarked, "Les hommes sont tous frères, et ils s'entre-déchirent: les bêtes farouches sont moins cruelles. Les lions ne font point la guerre aux lions, ni les tigres aux tigres; ils n'attaquent que les animaux d'espèce différente: l'homme seul, malgré sa raison, fait ce que les animaux sans raison ne firent jamais.”—Télémaque, livre 17.

a "There are, moreover, some actions of the beasts so ordered and directed, as plainly discover them to be the effects of some small degree of reason; as is most manifest in ants and bees,

scarcely any variation in their food, except from accidental necessity. The beaver and the tiger have for thousands of years, preserved the same distinctive character, equally well instructed in the earliest period of their history as in the present day. Not so with man-born in a more helpless condition, he would have soon fallen a prey to other animals, had he not been endowed with a superior faculty amply compensating for his inferior strength. His powers of reasoning are greater or less according to the number and correctness of his ideas. The new-born infant is therefore destitute of reason, and in youth it is less powerful than in the adult man. Analogous in some degree to the advance of the individual, is the progress of knowledge and power in the history of. the species. In the infancy of society the paucity

and also in some others, which, before they have experienced them, will avoid things hurtful and seek those that are profitable to them. That this power of searching out and distinguishing is not properly in themselves, is apparent from hence, because they act always alike."-Grotius, book 1. section 2.

b"The opinion which men entertain of antiquity is a very idle thing, and almost incongruous to the word; for the old age and length of days of the world should, in reality, be accounted antiquity, and ought to be attributed to our own times, not to the youth of the world, which it enjoyed among the ancients; for that age, though with respect to us it be ancient and greater, yet with regard to the world it was new and less. And as we

of his ideas, and consequently the limited means of forming the judgement, enabled man to discover no other mode of obtaining his food and raiment but by hunting and fishing: the gradual accumulation of ideas led him on successively to the pastoral, the agricultural, the commercial and manufacturing state; and now he is enabled to produce wealth in superfluity. A still further advance will conduct him to a knowledge of those principles of political and domestic œconomy, which, when once recognized as the science of human society, will lead to a beneficial distribution of his riches, and finally to universal peace.'

Emilius, who had been occupied during the night in administering to the relief of the wounded, listened with intense interest to this address. He now advanced, and appealing to the spirit observed: "We have been doubly wrong; first, in departing from that

justly expect a greater knowledge of things, and a riper judgement, from a man of years than from a youth, on account of the greater experience and the greater variety and number of things seen, heard, and thought of by the person in years, so might much greater matters be justly expected from the present age, (if it knew but its own strength, and would make trial and apply,) than from former times; as this is the more advanced age of the world, and now enriched and furnished with infinite experiments and observations."-Lord Bacon.