6 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



who, when tired, ill, and nervously worn out, began 

 bee-keeping, and through it regained vigour and 

 found a new interest in life. Notwithstanding the 

 fact that bees have honest stings, they can work the 

 miracle of changing a dyspeptic pessimist into a 

 cheerful optimist with a rapidity and completeness 

 that merits our highest admiration. 



A love for natural science is a very good reason for 

 keeping bees. Nowhere are there more fascinating 

 problems for the investigator than those still unsolved 

 in the hive. Of all the lower animals, bees are, per- 

 haps, the most highly developed in certain ways; 

 and it is more probable that the mysteries of the 

 eternal heavens and the distant stars be made plain 

 than that we ever learn the truths that underlie the 

 development of the "Spirit of the Hive." 



Another reason for keeping bees is the insight to 

 be gained therefrom into the conditions of perfect 

 communism. The bees and their relatives are the 

 most intelligent and consistent socialists that have 

 yet been developed in this world; and, through 

 studying their ways, one may discern with startling 

 clearness how the perfect socialism grinds off all 

 the projecting corners of the individual until it fits 

 perfectly in its communal niche. In the hive indi- 

 vidual traits, as exemplified in kindness, selfishness, 

 love and hate, are moved up a notch in the scale and 

 characterise the whole community, even though 

 they are eliminated from its members. If one is 

 a social philosopher, he may become very wise, 

 indeed, by studying the results of the laws of socialism 



