The Life of the Bee 



other than their fixed idea. Why inquire 

 as to whether this idea be conscious or 

 not ? Such speculation can have value 

 only if our anxiety be to determine whether 

 we should more rightly admire the bees 

 that have the idea, or nature that has 

 planted it in them. Wherever it lodge, 

 in the vast unknowable body or in the 

 tiny ones that we see, it merits our deepest 

 attention ; nor may it be out of place here 

 to observe that it is the habit we have of 

 subordinating our wonder to accidents of 

 origin or place, that so often causes us 

 to lose the chance of deep admiration ; 

 which of all things in the world is the 

 most helpful to us. 



These conjectures may perhaps be re- 



garded as exceedingly venturesome, and 



possibly also as unduly human. It may 



be urged that the bees, in all probability, 



90 



