USES AND VALUE OF HONEY. 65 



were included, and that the " vernal airs " of Eden were no 

 " desert airs," for lack of a glittering multitude of ever-joyous 

 sporters in the sun and shade. Even for uses economic, who 

 can say but that in addition to 



" Fruits of all kinds, in coats 



Rough or smooth rind, or bearded husk or shell," 



and "juice of grape," and " dulcet cream of almonds," the 

 grassy breakfast-board of Eve might not have been furnished 

 with honey purer than was ever collected in Narbonne or 

 on Hymettus. Indeed, if honey was ever stored at all by the 

 Bees of Paradise, it must have been rather for the use of man 

 than for their own, since to amass a winter's provision, would 

 have been labour lost in a clime where reigned "eternal 

 spring." 



And why were Bees " immortalised " in the verse of Virgil, 

 except on the same principle as that which led man to deify 

 his brother man? It was wholly for their usefulness, since 

 there is little doubt, that, but for their important economic 

 service, their own wonderful economy would have been as much 

 overlooked as it was misapprehended. Ants, it is true, with 

 no such claim upon human notice, attracted it scarcely less ; 

 witness the ancient "records of their wars:" but these are 

 comparatively recent, and it is likely that the marvels of Apian 

 monarchies first led to observation of the ways and wonders of 

 Pismire Republics. 



Of the value of honey and its extensive use, we, in our own 

 country and our own times, since the introduction of sugar, can 

 have seldom perhaps entertained anything like a just notion, 

 a much lower estimate, at all events, than the Ukraine peasant 

 with his 400 or 500 bee-hives, or a Spanish priest, possessor 

 of 5000. 



About the uses of wax, a word by-and-by ; but with the 

 aroma of honey in our nostrils, and its flavour on our lips, let 

 us think whether we are indebted to Insects for any other 



