THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



into space, and the chances are thus a thousand 

 times greater that the mark will be struck. One 

 drone, and one chance meeting with the queen in the 

 air, and the queen is fertilized ; her eggs will now all 

 produce worker or neuter bees. But this meeting of 

 the queen in the air by the drone or male bee is quite 

 a fortuitous matter: the day and hour of her flight is 

 fortuitous, her course on the wing is fortuitous, and 

 the course of the drone through the air is equally 

 fortuitous. 



The queen makes but one flight, and the fields of 

 summer air in which she wanders are very wide, and 

 the "spirit of the hive" has not advised any drone 

 at what particular moment she will be at any par- 

 ticular point. The spirit of the hive has a simpler if 

 a more wasteful method: it has developed many 

 drones, several score of them, I should think, and 

 they go forth every fair day and search the air in all 

 directions during the period when the nuptial flight 

 of the queen is likely to take place. One male some 

 day, some moment, is doomed to meet her and yield 

 his life for the swarm, as the worker bee yields her 

 life when she stings an enemy in defense of the col- 

 ony. Soon after the fertilization of the queen has 

 taken place, the drones are all killed or expelled from 

 the hive. It is a cruel fate from our point of view, 

 and a wasteful method, but cruelty and waste in this 

 sense do not trouble the cosmic or universal pro- 

 cesses. The swarm thrives, the race of honey-bees 



