The philosophy of the ancients, though very lame and imperfect, had nevertheless a glimpse of this difficulty; and, therefore, in order to remove it, some of them pretended that the Divine Spirit interspersed and scattered throughout the universe is a superior Wisdom that continually operates in all nature, especially in animals, just as souls act in bodies; and that this continual impression or impulse of the Divine Spirit, which the vulgar call instinct, without knowing the true signification of that word, was the life of all living creatures. They added, "That those sparks of the Divine Spirit were the principle of all generations; that animals received them in their conception and at their birth; and that the moment they died those divine particles disengaged themselves from all terrestrial matter in order to fly up to heaven, where they shone and rolled among the stars.  It is this philosophy, at once so magnificent and so fabulous, which Virgil so gracefully expresses in the following verses upon bees:--

"Induced by such examples, some have taught 

That bees have portions of ethereal thought, 

Endued with particles of heavenly fires, 

For God the whole created mass inspires. 

Through heaven, and earth, and ocean depth 

He throws His influence round, and kindles as He goes. 

Hence flocks, and herds, and men, and beasts, and fowls, 

With breath are quickened, and attract their souls. 

Hence take the forms His prescience did ordain, 

And into Him, at length, resolve again. 

No room is left for death: they mount the sky, 

And to their own congenial planets fly."