this he replaced them in a glass hive, mediately applied again to the work where they soon began to work as of making cells, and on the fourth or usual. The queen laid eggs, which, afth day, very early in the morning, to his great surprise, were impregna- he had the pleasure to see the queen ted; for he imagined he had separated bee deposit her eggs in those cells ; he all the drones, or males, and therefore continued watching most part of the omitted watching them; at the end ensuing days, but could discover noof twenty days he found several of his thing of what he had seen before. eggs had, in the usual course of The eggs after the fourth day, in. changes, produced bees, while some stead of changing in the manner of had withered away, and others were caterpillars, were found in the fame covered with honey. Hence he in- state they were the first day, except ferred, that some of the males had e. thar fome were covered with honey. Icaped his notice, and impregnated A fingular event happened the next part of the eggs. To convince hiin- day, about noon; all the bces left felt of this, he took away all the brood their own hive, and re seen attempt. comb that was in the hive, in order to ing to get into a neighbouring hive, oblige the bees to provide a fresh quan, on the tool of which the queen was tity, being determined to watch nar- found dead, being no doubt Main in fowly their motions after new eggs the egagement. This event seems to should be laid in the cells. On the have arisen from the great defire of • second day after the eggs were pla- perpetuating their species, and so which

ced in the cells, he perceived the same end the concurrence of the males operaion that was mentioned before, seems so absolutely neceffary'; it made namely, that of the bees hanging down them defert their habitation, where in the form of a curtain, 'while others no males were left, in order to fix a rethrust the posterior part of the body fidence in a new one, in which there into the cells. He then introduced was a good ftock of then. his hand into the hive, broke off a To be further satisfied, Mr De. piece of the comb, in which there braw took the brood-comb, which had were two of these infects; he found not been impregnated, and divided it in neither of them any sting (a cir- into two parts ; one he placed under cumstance peculiar to the drones ;) a glass bell, No. 1, with honey-comb upon dissection, with the affiftance of for the bees food, taking care to leave a microscope; he discovered the four à queen, but no drones, among the cylindrical bodies which contain the bees confined in it: the other piece of glutinous liquor, of a whitish colour, brood-comb be placed under another 13 observed by Maraldi in the large glafs bell, No. 2, with a few drones, drones. He was therefore dow un- a queen, and a proportionable number der a 'neceflity of repcating his experi- of common bees. The result was, ments, in destroying the males, and that in the glass, No. 1, there was even those which might be suspected no impregnation, the eggs remained in to be fuch,

the fame fate they were in then put : He once more immersed the same into the glass ; and on giving the bee's bees in water, and when they appear. their liberty on the seventh day, they ed in a fenfeless state, he gently prcffed all flew away, as was found to be the everyone, in order to distingush those cafe in the former experiment; where armed with stings from those which as in the glafs, No. 2, the very day had none, and which of course he fup after the becs had been put into it, pored to be malcs : of these last he "the eggs were impregnated by the found fifty-seven, and replaced the drones, and the bee's did not leare (warm in a glass hire, where they im- their hives on receiving their liberry.

.. 3 . TWO

The editor of the Cyclopedia fays, a moderő author suggests, thana small that the small drones are all dead be- number of drones are referred, to fupfore the end of May, when the larger ply the neceslities of the ensuing year; fpecies appear, and fuperfede their ufo; but that they are very little, if any, and that it is not without reason, that larger than the common bce.

Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland. Written by

the lute Mr William Collins*. A T a meeting of the Literary Class leting many lines and words, and subas

H of the Royal Sociсty, held on ficuting others, which are written aMonday 19th April 1784, the Rev. bove them. In particular, the greats Dr C'irlyle read an ode, written by the est part of the twelfth Itanza is new, Jate Mr Wm. Collins, and addrcred modelled in that manner. These va. to John Home, Efq; (author of Dou- riations I have marked in notes on the glas, &c.) on his return to Scouand copy which is inclosed, and I think in 1749. The committee appointed they should be printed: for literary to superintend the publication of the people are not indiferent to informa Socicty's Transactions having judged tion of this kind, which hews the this ode to be extremely deserving of progrelive improvement of a thought a place in that collection, requested in the mind of a man of genius. Mr Alex. Frafer Tytler, one of their This ode is, beyond all doubt, the nuniber, to procure from Dr Carlyle poem alluded to in the Life of Col. Every degree of information which he lins by Johnson, who, mentioning a could give concerning it. This ipfor visit made by Dr Warton and his bro. mation, which forms a proper irro- ther to the poet in his last illness, says, duction to the poem itfeif, is contain- " He showed them, at the same time, ed in the two following letters. “ an ode, inscribed to Mr John Home;

" on the superftitions of the HighLetter from Mr Alex. Fraser Tytler “lands, which they thought superior

to Mr John Robifon, General Se: “ to his other works, but which no

cretary of the Royal Society of Edin. " search has vet found.” Collins bim. • burgh,

felf, it appears from this passage, had Dear Sir,

kept a copy of the poem, which, confi·A T the desire of the Committee dering the unhappy circumstances that

F for publishing the Royal Socie, attended his last illness, it is no won. by's Transactions, I wrote to Dr Car, der was millaid or loft; and, but fot Lyle, requesting of him an account of that fortunate hint given by Johnson, all such particulars regarding Mr Col. it appears from DrCarlyle's letter, that lins's poem as were known to him, the original manuscript would, in ail and which were, in his opinion, pro- probability, bave undergone the same per to be communicated to the public. fate. I received from him the inciofod an. Struck with the fingular beauty of swer, and he transmitted to me, at the this poem, of which, I believe no same time, the original manuscript in map of taste will say that Dr Warton Mr Collins's handwriting. It is evi- and his brother have over-rated the dently the prima cura of the poem, merit, I could not help regretting the as you will perceive from the altera- mutilated form in which it aj peared ; rigas made in the manuscript, by de- and, in talking on that subject to my

friend * Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

friend Yr Henry Mackenzie of the That it was hastily compofed and inExchequer (a gentleman well known correct; but that he would one day to the literary world by many ingenious find leisure to look it over with care. productions) I proposed to him the talk Mr Collins and Mr Home had been of supplying the fifth stanza, and the made acquainted by Mr John Barrow half of the sixth, which were entirely (the cordial youth mentioned in the loft. How well he has executed that first stanza,) who had been for some talk, the public will judge; who, un- time at the University of Edinburgh, less warned by the inverted commas had been a volutiteer along with Mr that distinguish the supplemental verses, Home in the year 1746, had been would probably never have discovered taken prisoner with him at the battle the chasm. Several hemistichs, and of Falkirk, and had escaped, together words left blank by Mr Collins, had with him and five or fix other genule. before been very happily supplied by men, from the castle of Down. Mr Dr Carlyle. There are likewise mark- Barrow resided in 1749 at Winches. ed by inverted commas. They are a ter, where Mr Collins and Mr Home proof that this poem, as Dr Carlyle were, for a week or two, together on has remarked, was hastily composed ; a vilir. Mr Barrow was paymaster in but this circumstance evinces, at the America in the war that commenced same time, the vigour of the author's in 1756, and died in that country. imagination, and the ready command I thought no more of the poem till he poflefied of harmonious numbers. a few years ago, . when, on reading I am, dear Sir,

Dr Johnson's life of Collins, I conjectuYours, &c. red that it might be the very copy of

verses which he mentions, which he To Alex. Fraser Tytler, Esq.

says was much prized by some of his · SIR,

friends, and for the loss of which he T SEND you inclosed the original expresses regret. I fought for it a. 1 manuscript of Mr Collins's poem, mong my papers ; and perceiving that that, by comparing with it the copy a stanza and a half were wanting, I which I read to the Society, you may made the most diligent search I could be able to answer moft of the queries for them, but in vain. Whether or put to me by the Committee of the not this great chasm was in the poem Royal Society.

when it first came into my hands, is - The manuscript is in Mr Collins's more than I can remember at this disa handwriting, and fell into my hands tance of time. among the papers of a friend of mine As a curious and valuable fragment, and Mr John Home's, who died as I thought it could not appear with long ago as the year 1754. Soon after more advantage than in the Collection I found the poem, I shewed it to Mr of the Royal Society, Home, who told me that it had been I am, Sir, addressed to him by Mr Collins, on Your most obedient servant, his leaving London in the year 1749:

ALEX. CARLYLE. OD E. L - , thou return'st from Thames, whose Naiads long 11 Have seen thee ling'ring, with a fond delay, Mid those soft friends, whose hearts, some future day, • Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic song. Go, not unmindful of that cordial youth *, Whom, long endear'd, thou leav'it by Lavani's fide;

Together See the preceding letter from Dr Carlyle.

Together let us wish him lasting truth,

And joy untainted with his destin'd bride.
Go! nor regardless, while these numbers boalt

My short-liy'd bliss, forget my focial name;
But think far off how, on the fouthern coast,

I met thy friendship with an equal fame!
Fresh to that foil thou turn'it, whose ev'ry vale

Shall prompt the poet, and his song demand :
To thee thy copious subjects ne'er shall fail;

Thou need'li but take the pencil to thy hand,
And paint what all believe who own thy genial land.

II.
There must thou wake perforce thy Doric quill, .

'Tis Fancy's land to which thou feri'lt thy feet;
Where still, 'tis faid, the fairy people meet

Beneath each birken shade on mead or hill.
There each trim lafs that fkims the milky store

To the swart tribes their creamy bowl allots ; !
By night they fip it round the cottage-door,

While airy minstrels warble jocund notes.
There every herd, by fad experience, knows

How, wing'd with fate, their elf-thot arrows fly :
When tbe lick ewe her Summer food foregoes,

Or, stretch'd on carth, the heart-smit heifers lie.
Such airy beings awe the untucor'd swain :

Nor thou, though learn'd, his homelier thoughts oeglect;
Let thy sweet muse the rural faith sustain :

These are the themes of limple, fure effect,
That add new conquests to her boundless reign,
And fill, with double force, her heart-commanding strain,

III.
Ev'n yet preferi'd, how often may'st thou hear,

Where to the pole the Boreal mountains rua,
Taught by the father to his litt’ning for

Strange lays, whose power had charm'd a Spencer's ease
At et'ry paufe, before thy mind poffeft,

Old Runic bards shall seem to rise around,
With uncouth lyres, in many-coloured vcft,

Their matted hair with boughs fantastic crown'd:
Whether thou bid'st the well-taught hind repeat *.

• The choral dirge that mourns some chieftain brave
When ev'ry shricking maid her bosom beat,

And strew'd with choiceft herbs his scented grave;
Or whether, fitting in the thepherd's shielt,

Thou hear'lt some founding tale of war's alarms ;
When, at the bugle's call, with fire and steel,

The sturdy clans pour'd forth their bony swarms,
And hostile brothers met to prove each other's arms.

First written, relate. + A kind of hút, built for a Summer habitation to the herdsmen, when the cats De are funt to graze in difiant pastures,

IV. .
'Tis thine to ling, how framing hideous fpells

In Sky's lond ile the gifted wizzard “fits *,"
“ Waiting in” wintry cave “ his wayward tits † ;**

Or in the depth I of Uift's dark forests dwells :
How they, whose light such dreary dreams engross,

With their own visions ofr astonish'd drool,
When o'er the wat'ry strath or quaggy moss

They see the gliding ghosts unbodied troop.
Or if in sports, or on the feitive green,

Their “ piercing l” glance fome fated youth descry:
Who, now perhaps in luity vigour seen
· And rofy health, shall foon lamented die. ...
For them the viewless forms of air obey

Their bidding heed **, and at their beck repair.
They know whae spirit brews the stormful day,

And heartless, oft like moody madocís ítare
To see the phantom train their secrei work prepare.

V.
ft " Or on some bellying rock that shades the deep,

« They view the lurid ligns that cross the sky,
a Where, in the West, the brooding tempests lie,

“ And hear their firtt, faint, rustling pennons sweep.
« Or in the arched cave, where deep and dark

“ The broad, unbroken billows heave and swell, « In horrid musings rapt, they fit to mark

“ The labouring moon; or list the nightly yell . .
« Of that dread fpirit, whose gigantic form

“ The secr's estranced eye can well survey,
* Through the dim air who guides the driving storm, ..

“And points the wretched bark its destin'd prey.
« Or him who hovers, on his fiagging wing,

« O’er the dire whirlpool, that, in ocean's waste,
** Draws intent down whate'er devoted thing

" The failing breeze within its reach hath plac'd
The distant feaman hears, and flies with trembling hafte,

. i VI.
66 Or, if on lard the fiend exerts his fway,

“ Silent he broods o'er quickfand, boy, or fen,
☆ Far from the shel'ring 'roof and haunts of men, '

" Wher witched darkness shuts the eye of day,
“ And shrouds each star that wont to cheer the night ;
“ Or, if the drifted snow perplex the way,

«. With the Collins had written, feer.'

+ Collins had written, Lodg'd in the wintry cave avith and had left the line iinperfect : Altered and the charm fupplied by Dr Carlyle.

I First written, gloom.. ... ... .. . . . . . ..First written, aflisted.

. 'T A blank in the inan:fcript. The word piercing supplied by Dr Carlyle....

** First written, mark. ***A leaf of the manufcript, containing the fifth stanza, and one bilf of the fixth, is here loft. The chalm is fupplied by Mr Mackenzie. .." ***