Nothing can be done in the furnishing of the hive until a sufficient
quantity of wax has been provided. And this, like the gossamer threads
of the spider, is drawn from the insect's own body. The process of
secretion, as it is called, may last for some twenty-four hours; and
when it is completed the wax projects from between the segments of its
body in the form of thin plates. The material is then taken up into the
mouth and undergoes a process of mastication, until at last it issues
from the mandibles in the form of a small white ribbon.
This is the material with which they build up their hexagonal or
six-sided cells; and marvellous is the skill they show in the ingenious
arrangement. Like Plato, they might fitly inscribe over their portal,
"Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here," for the bee is entitled to
a first place in the ranks of the geometricians. It is even asserted on
the authority of the Rev. J. G. Wood that the angles of the bee-cell are
so mathematically correct that by their measurement an error in a book
of logarithms was detected; and Mr Darwin himself admits that "the comb
of the hive-bee is absolutely perfect in economising labour and wax."
The form of the cell has three distinct advantages. It combines the
greatest strength, the largest storage, and the least expenditure of
material and labour; and "the little busy bee," as if acquainted with
these strict mathematical principles, has followed them so accurately
that it easily steps into the first rank as a born mathematician.
But how is this fact to be accounted for? What is the explanation of
these inimitable architectural powers? "Without thought or even the
organ of thought, the bee can produce work which embodies thought." But
to whom does this thought belong? Can there be thought without a
thinker? Can there be the marks of intelligence without an original and
creative mind? No! at the building up of a bee-cell, just as at the
framing of a world, the thoughtful soul is face to face with Him whose
mind is stamped on every part of creation--with Him who is the great and
faithful Creator, whose tender mercies are over all His works.