for the entire community, and had impressed it upon each individual
member, as though each class of workers had learnt their appointed
work by heart, knew their places and the numbers in which they should
relieve each other, and were informed instantaneously by a secret
signal of the moment when their action was wanted. This, however, is
exactly the manner in which an instinct works; and as the intention
of the entire community is instinctively present in the unconscious
clairvoyance {131a} of each individual bee, so the possession of this
common instinct impels each one of them to the discharge of her
special duties when the right moment has arrived. It is only thus
that the wonderful tranquillity and order which we observe could be
attained. What we are to think concerning this common instinct must
be reserved for explanation later on, but the possibility of its
existence is already evident, inasmuch {131b} as each individual has
an unconscious insight concerning the plan proposed to itself by the
community, and also concerning the means immediately to be adopted
through concerted action--of which, however, only the part requiring
his own co-operation is present in the consciousness of each. Thus,
for example, the larva of the bee itself spins the silky chamber in
which it is to become a chrysalis, but other bees must close it with
its lid of wax. The purpose of there being a chamber in which the
larva can become a chrysalis must be present in the minds of each of
these two parties to the transaction, but neither of them acts under
the influence of conscious will, except in regard to his own
particular department. I have already mentioned the fact that the
larva, after its metamorphosis, must be freed from its cell by other
bees, and have told how the working-bees in autumn kill the drones,
so that they may not have to feed a number of useless mouths
throughout the winter, and how they only spare them when they are
wanted in order to fecundate a new queen. Furthermore, the working-