The lesser Tame Animals, as Dogs, Cats, _&c._ know they have no occasion to take that Care of themselves, for when they die, their Master is oblig’d to remove them out of his House and bury them: [Sidenote: How Insects bury themselves.] But as for Insects, they (fearing Mankind should be regardless of their inconsiderable Bodies, and not be so grateful as to take care of their Funerals, tho’ they had consum’d their Lives in making Food and Raiment for their Master) seem with a more extraordinary Contrivance, and admirable Art, to provide for their own Burial. The little Bee works its Honey-Comb for the Benefit of Man while it lives, and for its own Sepulture when it dies; the Comb serving for its Tomb, and the Wax and remaining Honey for its Embalment, conformable to that Saying of _Martial_, in his Fourth Book and Thirty Second Epigram: _Et latet, & lucet Phaetontide condita Gutta, Ut videatur Apis Nectare clausa suo: Dignum tantorum Pretium tulit illa Laborum, Credibile est ipsam sic voluisse mori._ She lurks, she shines within her balmy Nest, That there securely she may take her Rest; For all her Labours past she asks but this, That she may lye thus bury’d when she dies. The Silk-Worm (which also willingly parts with her Stock and Labour for the Benefit of Mankind) makes a small reserve of Silk, sufficient for her Winding-Sheet, which when she has finish’d, she dies therein, and is as nobly Interr’d, as all the _Egyptian Art_, with its fine Painted Rowlers of Cyprus, Lawn or Silk could make her. Other Insects, as Flies, Ants, Gnats, and the like, which are not dispos’d with Organs to perform such Works, yet have this in particular, that they can outdare the most resolute _Indian_ [Sidenote: Some are _Burn’d_ and others _Embalm’d_.] (when, without any previous Exhortation, they suddenly leap into the Funeral Pyre of a Candle or Torch, and outvie the costly Embalming of _Arabia_) when they voluntarily fly into liquid Amber, and by that means obtain a more noble and incorruptible Sepulture than any other Creature. These have had Poets to write Funeral Orations to their immortal Praise, as the two Epigrams in _Martial_ of a Viper and Pismire in some measure testifie, _Lib._ 4. _Ep._ 59. and _Lib._ 6. _Ep._ 15. Witness also _Brassavolus_ of the Pismire, and _Cardanus_’s _Mausoleum_ for a Flie: Nor could _Virgil_ (the Prince of Poets) omit taking notice of the well order’d Funerals of the Bees, _Georg._ _Lib._ 4. _l._ 255. ——_Tum Corpora Luce carentum Exportant Tectis, & tristia Funera ducunt._ And crowds of Dead, that never must return } To their lov’d Hives, in decent Pomp are born; } Their Friends attend the Herse, and near Relations mourn. } _Dryden._