The Foundation of the City 



table, or impregnated with evil odours. 

 And even then the bees will not be dis- 

 heartened or bewildered; even then they 

 will not abandon their mission. The 

 swarm will simply forsake the inhospi- 

 table abode, to seek better fortune some 

 little distance away. And similarly it can 

 never be said of them that they can be 

 induced to undertake any illogical or 

 foolish task. Their common-sense has 

 never been known to fail them ; they 

 have never, at a loss for definite decision, 

 erected at haphazard structures of a wild or 

 heterogeneous nature. Though you place 

 the swarm in a sphere, a cube, or a pyra- 

 mid, in an oval or polygonal basket, you 

 will find, on visiting the bees a few days 

 later, that if this strange assembly of little 

 independent intellects has accepted the new 

 abode, they will at once, and unhesitatingly 

 and unanimously have known how to select 

 the most favourable, often humanly speak- 

 141 



