The Life of the Bee 



presses it, the pyre that some day shall 

 feed its triumph. 



If in this world all things be matter, 

 this is surely its most immaterial move- 

 ment. Transition is called for from a 

 precarious, egotistic and incomplete life 

 to a life that shall be fraternal, a little 

 more certain, a little more happy. The 

 spirit must ideally unite that which in the 

 body is actually separate ; the individual 

 must sacrifice himself for the race, and 

 substitute for visible things the things 

 that cannot be seen. Need we wonder 

 that the bees do not at the first glance 

 realise what we have not yet disentangled, 

 we who find ourselves at the privileged 

 spot whence instinct radiates from all 

 sides into our consciousness ? And it is 

 curious too, almost touching, to see how 

 the new idea gropes its way, at first, in 

 the darkness that enfolds all things that 

 come to life on this earth. It emerges 

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