Bramble-bees and Others 



ment between those two calendars, the calen- 

 dar of the persecutor and the persecuted! At 

 the very moment when the Bee comes out, 

 here is the Gnat: she is ready to begin her 

 deadly starving-process all over again. 



Were this an isolated case, one's mind 

 would not dwell upon it : an Halictus more or 

 less in the world makes little difference in the 

 general balance. But, alas, brigandage in all 

 its forms is the rule in the eternal conflict of 

 living things ! From the lowest to the high- 

 est, every producer is exploited by the unpro- 

 ductive. Man himself, whose exceptional 

 rank ought to raise him above such baseness, 

 excels in this ravening lust. He says to him- 

 self that business means getting hold of other 

 people's cash, even as the Gnat says to her- 

 self that business means getting hold of the 

 Halictus' honey. And, to play the brigand to 

 better purpose, he invents war, the art of kill- 

 ing wholesale and of doing with glory that 

 which, when done on a smaller scale, leads to 

 the gallows. 



Shall we never behold the realization of 

 that sublime vision which is sung on Sundays 

 in the smallest village-church: Gloria in ex- 

 celsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bona 



390 



