UNDER THE MAPLES 



They work as well (or better) in the darkness as 

 in the light. The Spirit of the Hive knows and 

 directs all. The unit is the swarm, and not the 

 individual bee. 



The bee does not know fear; she does not know 

 love. She will defend the swarm with her life, 

 but her fellows she heeds not. 



It is very doubtful if the individual bees of the 

 same hive recognize one another at all outside the 

 hive. Every beehunter knows how the bees from 

 the same tree will clip and strike at one another 

 around his box, when they are first attracted to it. 

 After they are seriously engaged in carrying away 

 his honey, they pay no attention to one another or 

 to bees from other swarms. That bees tell one 

 another of the store of honey they have found is 

 absurd. The unity of the swarm attends to that. 



Maeterlinck tells of a little Italian bee that he 

 once experimented upon during an afternoon, the 

 results showing that this bee had told the news of 

 her find to eighteen bees! Its "vocabulary" stood 

 it in good stead! 



Maeterlinck's conception of the Spirit of the Hive 

 was an inspiration, and furnishes us with the key 

 to all that happens in the hive. The secret of all 

 its economies are in the phrase. Having hit upon 

 this solution* he should have had the courage to 

 stand by it. But he did not. He is continually 

 forgetting it and applying to his problem the ex- 



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