The Life of the Bee 



space, as we come and go in the streets 

 and squares of our towns. Would the 

 mere sight of our movements, our build- 

 ings, machines, and canals, convey to him 

 any precise idea of our morality, intellect, 

 our manner of thinking, and loving, and 

 hoping, in a word, of our real and inti- 

 mate self? All he could do, like our- 

 selves when we gaze at the hive, would be 

 to take note of some facts that seem very 

 surprising ; and from these facts to deduce 

 conclusions probably no less erroneous, 

 no less uncertain, than those that we choose 

 to form concerning the bee. 



This much at least is certain ; our " little 

 black specks " would not reveal the vast 

 moral direction, the wonderful unity, that 

 are so apparent in the hive. " Whither 

 do they tend, and what is it they do ? " he 

 would ask, after years and centuries of 

 patient watching. " What is the aim of 

 their life, or its pivot ? Do they obey 

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