WILD BEES 61 



clan stage of social development is represented in 

 the village communities of the humble bee, still 

 held together by the loosest ties. The independence 

 and welfare of the individual is still preserved, and 

 the community still largely exists for the individual, 

 and not the individual for the community. But 

 with the hive bees the individual has ceased to 

 be of much account ; even its life is wantonly 

 expended, as, for instance, in order that the colony 

 may secure the infinitesimal advantage derived 

 from the slightly more serious wound inflicted when 

 the worker leaves her barbed sting in the flesh of 

 an enemy ; one-half the community (the neuters) 

 are unsexed, and the other half (the drones), while 

 preserving their sex, have lost nearly everything 

 else to become the degraded victims of the meanest 

 kind of slavery. But the species has prospered, 

 the government is highly centralized, and the state 

 is rich, populous, and powerful beyond comparison 

 with its less civilized competitors. What are the 

 lessons ? Has progress been dearly bought as we 

 should count the cost ? 



