Note 158 — Chapter XII · DE ANIMÂ, ETC.

Aristot. De Gen. Animal. III. x. p. 760, a. 4: ὄντος δὲ περιττοῦ τοῦ γένους καὶ ἰδίου τοῦ τῶν μελιττῶν. — p. 761, a. 4: οὐ γὰρ ἔχουσιν (wasps and hornets) οὐδὲν θεῖον, ὥσπερ τὸ γένος τῶν μελιττῶν. It is remarkable that περιττός, the epithet here applied by Aristotle to bees, is the epithet that he also applies to men of theoretical and speculative activity, as contrasted with men prudent and judicious in action (see Metaphys. A. ii. p. 983, a. 2; also Ethic. Nikom. VI. vii. p. 1141, b. 6). Elsewhere he calls bees φρόνιμα (Metaphys. A. i. p. 980, b. 22). See a good note of Torstrick (on Aristot. De Animâ, III. p. 428, a. 10), p. 172 of his Commentary. Aristotle may possibly have been one among the philosophers that Virgil had in his mind, in Georgics, iv. 219:—

“His quidam signis, atque hæc exempla secuti, Esse apibus partem divinæ mentis, et haustus Æthereos dixere: Deum namque ire per omnes Terrasque, tractusque maris, cœlumque profundum,” &c.