The Foundation of the City 



the hive into which the bees have been 

 gathered be covered from top to bottom 

 with leaves of foundation-wax, they will 

 not waste time in erecting buildings across 

 or beside these, or in producing useless 

 wax, but, finding that the work is already 

 half finished, they will be satisfied to 

 deepen and lengthen each of the cells 

 designed in the leaf, carefully rectifying 

 these where there is the slightest devia- 

 tion from the strictest vertical. Proceed- 

 ing in this fashion, therefore, they will 

 possess in a week a city as luxurious and 

 well-constructed as the one they have 

 quitted ; whereas, had they been thrown 

 on their own resources, it would have 

 taken them two or three months to con- 

 struct so great a profusion of dwellings 

 and storehouses of shining wax. 



143 



