THE BEE. 343 



fitted to undergo the fatigues of its state. When all i< i 

 parts have acquired their proper strength and consistence, 

 the young animal opens its prison, by piercing with its 

 teeth the waxen door that confines it. When just freed 

 from its cell, it is as yet moist, and incommoded with the 

 spoils of its former situation : but the officious bees are 

 soon seen to flock round it, and to lick it clean on all 

 sides with their trunks; while another band with equal 

 assiduity, are observed to feed it with honey ; others 

 again begin immediately to cleanse the cell that has just 

 been left, to carry the ordures out of the hive, and to fit 

 the place for a new inhabitant. The young bee soon re- 

 pays their care by its industry ; for as soon as ever its ex- 

 ternal parts become dry it discovers its natural appetites 

 for labor, and industriously begins the task, which it 

 pursues unremittingly through life. The toil of man is 

 irksome to him, and he earns his substance with pain ; 

 but this little animal seems happy in its pursuits, and finds 

 delis^ht in all its employments. 



When just freed from the cell, and properly equipped 

 by its fellow bees for duty, it at once issues from the hive, 

 and instructed only by nature, goes in quest of flowers, 

 chooses only those that yield it a supply, rejects such as 

 are barren of honey, or have been already drained by 

 other adventurers ; and when loaded, is never at a loss to 

 find its way back to the common habitation. After this 

 first sally, it begins to gather the mealy powder that lies 

 on every flower, which is afterwards converted into wax ; 

 and with this the very first day it returns with two large 

 balls stuck to its thifrhs.' 



The fertility of the queen mother is prodigious. It is 

 said that during one season a single female will lay from 

 70,000, to 100,000 eggs. Two or three dij^tinct colonies 

 are often formed in one summer. It appears from repeat- 

 ed experiments, that the love of offspring is the great 

 motive which spurs the.m on to labor. Take away from a 

 hive the queen bee, and you put all effectual stop to in- 

 dustry. Not a single cell is constructed ; not a particle 

 of honey is stored up. Reaumur* tried this experiment 



• A celebrated French philosopher born at Focbelle, in 1683. 

 He wrote largely upon insects, and his works upon philosophy and 



