BEES. 81 



public buildings, which belong to the society 

 in common ; for among these happy beings 

 there is no meum and tuian. Some of these 

 edifices are appropriated as magazines for a 

 store of honey ; others for the daily provision 

 of the industrious; others are allotted to 

 receive their eggs, and to lodge the worm 

 from which the infant bee draws its vital 

 existence. 



In the hive there is usually but one queen, 

 six or eight hundred, or even a thousand males, 

 called drones, and from fifteen to sixteen thou- 

 sand Bees, without distinction of sex, who 

 carry on the policy and manufacture of the 

 commonwealth. The mother bee, or the queen, 

 is the soul of the community, and were it not 

 for her, every thing would languish ; for 

 when she is secreted from the city, the inha- 

 bitants lose all care of posterity, making 

 neither wax nor honey. Her subjects pay 

 her majesty the most dutiful respect, and 

 accompany her whenever she goes abroad, or 

 is carried from her palace : and such is their 

 address, that they perform their several 

 functions without being ordered, or giving 

 their queen, the least trouble or uneasiness. 



