The Life of the Bee 



vidually prospering in the midst of a 

 languishing state. It protects the hard- 

 working slave in the powerful city, while 

 those who have no duties, whose associa- 

 tion is only precarious, are abandoned to 

 the nameless, formless enemies who dwell 

 in the minutes of time, in the movements 

 of the universe, and in the recesses of 

 space. This is not the moment to dis- 

 cuss the scheme of nature, or to ask 

 ourselves whether it would be well for 

 man to follow it; but it is certain that 

 wherever the infinite mass allows us to 

 seize the appearance of an idea, the ap- 

 pearance takes this road v/hereof we know 

 not the end. Let it be enough that we 

 note the persistent care with which nature 

 preserves, and fixes in the evolving race, 

 all that has been won from the hostile 

 inertia of matter. She records each happy 

 effort, and contrives we know not what 

 special and benevolent laws to counteract 



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