THE COLLECTION. BOOKS IV, V 389 
Book V. Preface on the Sagacity of Bees. 
It is characteristic of the great Greek mathematicians that, 
whenever they were free from the restraint of the technical 
language of mathematics, as when for instance they had occa 
sion to write a preface, they were able to write in language of 
the highest literary quality, comparable with that of the 
philosophers, historians, and poets. We have only to recall 
the introductions to Archimedes’s treatises and the prefaces 
to the different Books of Apollonius’s Conics. Heron, though 
severely practical, is no exception when he has any general 
explanation, historical or other, to give. We have now to 
note a like case in Pappus, namely the preface to Book V of 
the Collection. The editor, Hultsch, draws attention to the 
elegance and purity of the, language and the careful writing ; 
the latter is illustrated by the studied avoidance of hiatus. 1 
The subject is one which a writer of taste and imagination 
would naturally find attractive, namely the practical intelli 
gence shown by bees in selecting the hexagonal form for the 
cells in the honeycomb. Pappus does not disappoint us; the 
passage is as attractive as the subject, and deserves to be 
reproduced. 
‘ It is of course to men that God has given the best and 
most perfect notion of wisdom in general and of mathematical 
science in particular, but a partial share in these things he 
allotted to some of the unreasoning animals as well. To men, 
as being endowed with reason, he vouchsafed that they should 
do everything in the light of reason and demonstration, but to 
the other animals, while denying them reason, he granted 
that each of them should, by virtue of a certain natural 
instinct, obtain just so much as is needful to support life. 
This instinct may be observed to exist in very many other 
species of living creatures, but most of all in bees. In the first 
place their orderliness and their submission to the queens who 
rule in their state are truly admirable, but much more admirable 
still is their emulation, the cleanliness they observe in the 
gathering of honey, and the forethought and housewifely care 
they devote to its custody. Presumably because they know 
themselves to be entrusted with the task of bringing from 
the gods to the accomplished portion of mankind a share of 
1 Pappus, vol. iii, p. 1233.