The Life of the Bee 



fashion things may be reflected in the 

 6,000 or 7,000 facets of their lateral eyes 

 and the triple cyclopean eye on their brow, 

 but as it would seem to us, were we of 

 their stature. From the height of a dome 

 more colossal than that of St. Peter's at 

 Rome waxen walls descend to the ground, 

 balanced in the void and the darkness ; 

 gigantic and manifold, vertical and parallel 

 geometric constructions, to which, for rela- 

 tive precision, audacity, and vastness, no 

 human structure is comparable. Each of 

 these walls, whose substance still is immac- 

 ulate and fragrant, of virginal, silvery fresh- 

 ness, contains thousands of cells, that are 

 stored with provisions sufficient to feed the 

 whole people for several weeks. Here, 

 lodged in transparent cells, are the pollens, 

 love-ferment of every flower of spring, 

 making brilliant splashes of red and yellow, 

 of black and mauve. Close by, in twenty 

 thousand reservoirs, sealed with a sea] 

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