The Life of the Bee 



fashion things may be reflected in the 

 6,000 or 7,000 facets of their lateral eyes 

 and the triple cyclopean eye on their brow, 

 — but as it would seem to us, were we of 

 their stature. From the height of a dome 

 more colossal than that of St. Peter's at 

 Rome waxen walls descend to the ground, 

 balanced in the void and the darkness ; 

 gigantic and manifold, vertical and parallel 

 geometric constructions, to which, for rela- 

 tive precision, audacity, and vastness, no 

 human structure is comparable. Each of 

 these walls, whose substance still is immac- 

 ulate and fragrant, of virginal, silvery fresh- 

 ness, contains thousands of cells, that are 

 stored with provisions sufficient to feed the 

 whole people for several weeks. Here, 

 lodged in transparent cells, are the pollens, 

 love-ferment of every flower of spring, 

 making brilliant splashes of red and yellow, 

 of black and mauve. Close by, in twenty 

 thousand reservoirs, sealed with a seal 

 48 



