126 STORIFYING AND SINGLE-HIVING. 



" Ah ! see where robb'd and murder'd in that pit 

 Lies the still heaving hive ! at evening snatch'd, 

 Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night, 

 And fix'd o'er sulphur 



" Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends, 

 And, us'd to milder scents, the tender race 

 By thousands tumble from their honey'd dome, 

 Convuls'd and agonizing in the dust.'* 



The bee is generally allowed to be a short-lived 

 insect. (Fide Longevity of Bees.) Whatever ad- 

 vantage can be derived however, from preserving 

 the lives of the bees, at the period of taking their 

 honey, those, who keep them upon the storifying 

 plan, will have the full benefit of it, and be spared 

 that torture of feeling, which the sensitive always 

 experience, when destroying life in any way. 



" True benevolence extends itself through the 

 whole compass of existence, and sympathizes with 

 the distress of every creature capable of sensation. 

 Little minds may be apt to consider a compassion 

 of this inferior kind, as an instance of weakness, 

 but I consider it as affording undoubted evidence 

 of a noble nature." Melmoth. 



