The Life of the Bee 



doubtful anecdotes collected on every 

 side. But in this essay of mine we rarely 

 shall meet each other ; for our starting- 

 point, our aim, and our point of view 

 are all very different. 



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The bibliography of the bee (we will 

 begin with the books so as to get rid 

 of them as soon as we can and go to 

 the source of the books) is very exten- 

 sive. From the beginning this strange 

 little creature, that lived in a society 

 under complicated laws and executed 

 prodigious labours in the darkness, at- 

 tracted the notice of men. Aristotle, 

 Cato, Varro, Pliny, Columella, Palladius 

 all studied the bees ; to say nothing of 

 Aristomachus, who, according to Cicero, 

 watched them for fifty-eight years, and of 

 Phyliscus, whose writings are lost. But 

 these dealt rather with the legend of the 



