2 BRITISH BEES. 



To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, 



Obedience : for so work the honey bees ; 



Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach 



The act of order to a peopled kingdom. 



They have a king, and officers of sorts : 



Where some, like magistrates, correct at home ; 



Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad ; 



Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, 



Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds ; 



Which pillage they, with merry march, bring home 



To the tent-royal of their emperor : 



Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 



The singing masons building roofs of gold ; 



The civil citizens kneading up the honey ; 



The poor mechanick porters crowding in 



Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate; 



The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum, 



Delivering o'er to executors pale 



The lazy yawning drone." Henry V., 1, 2. 



Nothing escaped the wonderful vision of this " myriad - 

 minded " man, and its pertinent application. 



This description, although certainly not technically 

 accurate, is a superb broad sketch, and shows how well 

 he was acquainted with the natural history and habits of 

 the domestic bee. 



The curiosity bees have attracted from time imme- 

 morial, and the wonders of their economy elicited by the 

 observation and study of modern investigators, is but a 

 grateful return for the benefits derived to man from 

 their persevering assiduity and skill. It is the just 

 homage of reason to perfect instinct running closely 

 parallel to its own wonderful attributes. Indeed, so 

 complex are many of the operations of this instinct, as 

 to have induced the surmise of a positive affinity to 

 reason, instead of its being a mere analogy, working 

 blindly and without reflection. The felicity of the adap- 





