Bees.Of Bees.Itis easy to imagine why they are highly valued. They have always been very numerous in Palestine. Frequent mention is made in the sacred volume of “honey out ofthe rock.” The Scriptures also speak of honey as forming a part of the presents which it was usual to send to persons of distinction. Canaan is described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” John the Baptist is said to have lived upon “locusts and wild honey,” and among the articles of food set before our Saviour, when, after his resurrection he ate with his disciples, was a piece of an “honeycomb.”These combined circumstances have doubtless had their share in leading the uninstructed, in nearly all countries and times, to look upon the Bee with a feeling of superstitious reverence.Mead, the produce of the Bee, was the favourite drink, the nectar of the ancient Britons; and their attachment to this extraordinary little insect ascended to a very remote period. According to their belief, the high origin of the Bee is from Paradise, and it was on account of man’s transgression they left it, and then God gave them a blessing. The priests therefore maintained that noMassought to be celebrated, except by the light ofwax.These extraordinary little insects make the tops and bottoms of their cells of three planes meeting in a point, and the inclinations or angles at which they meet, are precisely those found out by the mathematicians to be the best possiblefor saving wax and work. Who could dream the Bee was conversant with the highest branch of the mathematics, the fruit of Newton’s most wonderful labour, of the source of which he was himself ignorant; one of his most celebrated followers having found it out in a later age? This little insect works with a truth and correctness which are perfect, and according to the principles at which man has arrived only after ages of slow improvement in the most difficult branch of the most difficult science. But the mighty and all-wise Creator who made the insect and the philosopher, bestowing reason on the latter, and giving skill to the former to work without it, to Him all truths are known from all eternity with an intuition that mocks even the conceptions of the sagest of human kind.
Bees.Of Bees.Itis easy to imagine why they are highly valued. They have always been very numerous in Palestine. Frequent mention is made in the sacred volume of “honey out ofthe rock.” The Scriptures also speak of honey as forming a part of the presents which it was usual to send to persons of distinction. Canaan is described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” John the Baptist is said to have lived upon “locusts and wild honey,” and among the articles of food set before our Saviour, when, after his resurrection he ate with his disciples, was a piece of an “honeycomb.”These combined circumstances have doubtless had their share in leading the uninstructed, in nearly all countries and times, to look upon the Bee with a feeling of superstitious reverence.Mead, the produce of the Bee, was the favourite drink, the nectar of the ancient Britons; and their attachment to this extraordinary little insect ascended to a very remote period. According to their belief, the high origin of the Bee is from Paradise, and it was on account of man’s transgression they left it, and then God gave them a blessing. The priests therefore maintained that noMassought to be celebrated, except by the light ofwax.These extraordinary little insects make the tops and bottoms of their cells of three planes meeting in a point, and the inclinations or angles at which they meet, are precisely those found out by the mathematicians to be the best possiblefor saving wax and work. Who could dream the Bee was conversant with the highest branch of the mathematics, the fruit of Newton’s most wonderful labour, of the source of which he was himself ignorant; one of his most celebrated followers having found it out in a later age? This little insect works with a truth and correctness which are perfect, and according to the principles at which man has arrived only after ages of slow improvement in the most difficult branch of the most difficult science. But the mighty and all-wise Creator who made the insect and the philosopher, bestowing reason on the latter, and giving skill to the former to work without it, to Him all truths are known from all eternity with an intuition that mocks even the conceptions of the sagest of human kind.
Of Bees.
Itis easy to imagine why they are highly valued. They have always been very numerous in Palestine. Frequent mention is made in the sacred volume of “honey out ofthe rock.” The Scriptures also speak of honey as forming a part of the presents which it was usual to send to persons of distinction. Canaan is described as a land “flowing with milk and honey.” John the Baptist is said to have lived upon “locusts and wild honey,” and among the articles of food set before our Saviour, when, after his resurrection he ate with his disciples, was a piece of an “honeycomb.”
These combined circumstances have doubtless had their share in leading the uninstructed, in nearly all countries and times, to look upon the Bee with a feeling of superstitious reverence.
Mead, the produce of the Bee, was the favourite drink, the nectar of the ancient Britons; and their attachment to this extraordinary little insect ascended to a very remote period. According to their belief, the high origin of the Bee is from Paradise, and it was on account of man’s transgression they left it, and then God gave them a blessing. The priests therefore maintained that noMassought to be celebrated, except by the light ofwax.
These extraordinary little insects make the tops and bottoms of their cells of three planes meeting in a point, and the inclinations or angles at which they meet, are precisely those found out by the mathematicians to be the best possiblefor saving wax and work. Who could dream the Bee was conversant with the highest branch of the mathematics, the fruit of Newton’s most wonderful labour, of the source of which he was himself ignorant; one of his most celebrated followers having found it out in a later age? This little insect works with a truth and correctness which are perfect, and according to the principles at which man has arrived only after ages of slow improvement in the most difficult branch of the most difficult science. But the mighty and all-wise Creator who made the insect and the philosopher, bestowing reason on the latter, and giving skill to the former to work without it, to Him all truths are known from all eternity with an intuition that mocks even the conceptions of the sagest of human kind.