54 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



The leaders, midmost of the battle lines, 

 Conspicuous for their wings, exhibit how 

 A mighty soul works in a narrow breast. 



The analogy between bees and men 

 is seldom carried more dangerously 

 near the verge of the ridiculous 

 than when a bee dies and the sur- 

 vivors bear out the lifeless corpse 



And form the mournful funeral train. 



Time has somqwhat dimmed this 

 picture, but with its suggestion of 

 the busts of dead ancestors and by- 

 gone accompaniments of a funeral, 

 it must have been somewhat vivid 

 in its day. 



The intelligence of bees and 

 other moral insects is greatly over- 

 rated, both by moralists and poets. 

 As between bees and ants, the 

 latter have quite as good a claim to 

 our respect, if we may accept the 

 conclusion of an eminent English 

 authority that they appear to pos- 

 sess some means of imparting in- 

 formation to one another — a sort 

 of ant-language ; whereas their 

 honey-making rivals work more by 

 " a rule in nature." Nevertheless 

 bees are more poetical in their as- 

 sociations, and Virgil has invoked 

 in their behalf his Lucretian pan- 

 tlieism, introducing it, however, 

 with a cautious " they say." Ac- 

 cording to this doctrine, the fiery 

 souls which animate their little 

 bodies are emanations from the All- 

 Soul which pervades and sustains 

 the framework of the universe, 

 and consequently a bee's history 

 does not end with its funeral. Its 

 immortal part, like the immortal 

 part of a man, is reabsorbed into 

 the original fountain, "and so there 

 is -no room for death," says Virgil, 



"but each flies up into the place of 

 a star." 



Bees, along with ants, birds, 

 leaves, and hailstones, furnished 

 the ancient poets with convenient 

 similes where numbeV was involved. 

 Homer compares the Greeks gath- 

 ering for battle to " swarms of 

 closely-thronging bees, always is- 

 suing in fresh numbers from the 

 hollow rock." ^ueas, looking 

 down on Carthage from a distance, 

 saw the people at work on the new 

 l)uildings like so many bees in 

 summer. And Milton, whose mind 

 was filled with classic forms, makes 

 Satan's minions swarm to the coun- 

 cil at Pandemonium, 



As bees 

 In springtime, when tlie sun with Taurus 



rides, 

 Pour forth their populous yontli about the 



hive 

 In clusters. 



In American poetry Emerson's 

 "Humblebee" and Whittier's "Tell- 

 ing the Bees" are unlike anything 

 the ancient Muse produced, and 

 differ widely from each other, both 

 in style and sentiment. The for- 

 mer contains the thoughts which 

 arise in the mind of a philosopher 

 as he calmly contemplates the 



Sailor of tlie atinosplici-e 



making his tiny voyage from flower 

 to flower ; while the latter is a 

 simple and very effective appeal to 

 the affections. Mr. Whittier's poem 

 is founded on the curious custom, 

 introduced from England and said 

 to have jn-evailed to some extent 

 in the rural districts of our own 

 country, of informing the bees, in 

 the event of a death in the family, 



