194 THE BEE-HIVE. 



justice to the honeyed theme? How discourse sweetly and 

 wisely, yet withal briefly above all, with ought of novelty of 

 those favoured labours sung by a Virgil, chronicled by a Varro, 

 hymned by a Watts, dramatised in the "good old times' of 

 our Virgin Queen royally patronised in the better new times 

 of our wedded monarch ? 



A bee-hive, however, is no easily exhausted store, containing, 

 as an object of thought, an infinite number of things besides 

 bees, or wax, or honey. It is a perfect emblematic treasury, 

 filled with analogies, precepts, patterns, poetry, morality, 

 divinity. 



In our sketch of bees as " a body politic/' we have seen 

 indeed how ill befitting is their waxen imagery to serve as a 

 model for human imitation how trail to falling dynasties the 

 support of waxen pillars ; but there yet remains in the 

 economy of the hive (especially as exhibited in bee labour) 

 enough in plenty for counsel, for reproof, for pattern, for 

 reflection, for admiration all resolving themselves into adora- 

 tion of Him to whom adoration alone is due. 



But it is time, \\ it hout further prelude, to open the straw casket 

 \\herein so many jewels are contained; though, in truth, it is 

 in their very profusion, full as much as in their previous appro- 

 priation, that a difficulty lies. How from the flowers of bee 

 economy, in themselves so numerous, and numerously culled, 

 shall we select a small and simple posy, fit on this summer 



