188S 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



145 



to be taken with the origiual words in order to com- 

 plete the lines and rhyme them. Much, therefore, 

 depends upon the translator; and one man's transla- 

 tion may sound considerably different from another's 

 translation of the same thing. 



Virgil had an excellent friend whose name is prc- 

 Dounced Mc-scc-iuis, and to him ho dedicated his 

 treatise upon bees. And the figures in marks like 

 this (4) refer to notes that I will put at the end of 

 the poetry. 



GEORGIC FOURTH. 



INVOCATION. 



The heavenly gift, the honey of the air, (1) 



Meecenas, 1 will now expound with care. 



This portion also deign to ponder o'er. 



As well as greater things 1 sang before. 



The wonderful in little things I'll tell 



Until your admiration it compel. 



Of a whole race in order I'll relate. 



Their leaders grand, the customs of their state. 



Their teeming multitudes, their busy zeal. 



Their glorious battles for the common weal. 



Full well I know that one might call my care 



A great ado about a small affair; 



But small the glory surely will not be 



If evil fates but yield the way for me. 



And the great spirit of immortal sf)ng. 



Called to my aid, shall hear and make me strong. 



CHOOSING A LOCATION. 



First a location and a proper spot 



There must be sought for bees; and choose it not 



Kxposed to wind; (2) winds unrestrained and rude 



Forbid the bees to carry home their IVjod. 



Choose not the plnco for apiarian bowers 



Where sheep and butting goat^^ insult the flowris; 



Or wandering steers shake off the dew amain, (:>) 



And waste the growing herbs upon the plain. 



From the fat hives these should be absent all. 



Lizards, among repulsive things that crawl. 



Painted as to their scaly backs with spot«. 



Let them be absent from the chosen plots; 



The bee-eater, and other Hying bands, 



And swallows marked on breast with bloody hands; 



All these plunder at large in fields of air, 



And flying bees in cruel beak they bear 



A dulcet morsel to their merc'less young. 



No more to bask the fragrant flowers among. 



But liquid fount?, and ponds with mosses green, 



Let these be present, and in silver sheen 



The slender brook, swift hurrying thro' the grass. 



Reviving nature as its waters pass, (fi) 



A palm should shade the entrance of the hive. 



Or some great oleaster there should thrive. (T) 



That when the kings (8) lead forth the first new 



swarms, 

 In their own spring which all the earth transforms, 

 The royal youth ,iust issued from the combs 

 May play, delighted, round their pleasant homes, 

 Where neighboring banks with summer glow invite 

 Betimes the festive monarchs to alight. 

 And a convenient tree across their way 

 With hospitable boughs may bid them stay. 



There ! isn't it excellent so far? Have the apiary 

 so Eden-like with shade and waters and sunny banks 

 that swarms can't afford to run away from it. Es- 

 pecially good is the couusel to have convenient 

 trees right in the lines where swarms would natural- 

 ly drift away. 



(1) The condition of the air has more to do with 

 the honey-crop than all other causes combined. 

 Most of the famous honey regions of the world, 

 California, Chili, the land of Canaan, Dalmatia, etc., 

 are where the air, sweeping in the prevailing wind 

 for a long distance over the water, is suddenly lifted 

 up and rarifled by a range of hills. No doubt, how- 

 ever, the idea prevailed then, as it does now, that 

 honey sometimes fell in minute drops from the at- 

 mosphere. We certainly have floral honey and leaf 

 honey and insect honey; and whether there is or 

 is not a fourth kind that settles from the air, is in 



doubt to this day. Some pretty strong evidence 

 seems to indicate that there is such a thing. 



(3) Very level-headed advice this is. Localities 

 vary greatly; audit is worth while to search for a 

 good one if you wish to keep many bees. To perch 

 an apiary on the bald, windy top of a hill is very 

 foolish. The poet also thinks of some more warn- 

 ings about bad locations, and Inserts them further 

 along in the poem. 



(3) California bee-keepers sometimes fairly cry out 

 with vexation, their business is so interfered with 

 by great flocks of sheep. 



(t) Toads are bad enough, btit lizards have the 

 same greedy appetite for insects, and can stick their 

 heads right in at the entrance. Aren't we glad they 

 are not plentiful in this country? 



(5) The kind of swallow mentioned here, the one 

 with just a few red feathers on the breast, is, if I am 

 right, never seen in this country. Considering the 

 "cut of his jib," we don't want him, even if he is 

 pretty. 



(6) Great ponds and rivers are sometimes injurious; 

 but little ones are beneficial. 



(7) Virgil is here clear up to the high-water mark 

 of modern practice. A palm is like a big umbrella 

 on a pole. If the shade fell on the hive in the heat 

 of the day it woula not shade it night and morning. 

 The oleaster, being similar to the olive, would throw 

 a rather light, thin shade. The teaching seems to 

 be, shade the hives, but not too much, and have 

 sunshine morning and evening if you can. 



(8) I suppose we might bout as well admit here, 

 that our poet seems not have found out that the 

 object of affection and loyalty in a hive is a female. 

 Surely, we can forgive him that much if we try hard. 



Richards, O., Jan. 2, 1883. E. E. IIastv. 



I am very glad indeed that friend Hasty 

 lias taken up the cause of our good old friend 

 Virgil, and I confess the point lie makes is 

 one I never really thought of before. I 

 wonder if some of the?'^ children speak Ger- 

 man as well as Eng''.sh, as our boy Jacob 

 does. If so, they know how hard it is to in- 

 terpret for any one something they do not 

 quite understand themselves. Some years 

 ago, before Jacob came here, we had letters 

 from our friends in Germany, and some of 

 the students in college wanted to translate 

 them for us, just for the practice it afforded. 

 Now% these students were educated, and 

 smart, but they didn't know " bees " at all, 

 as you and I do. Well, in one of their trans- 

 lations we found the word " bee-cradles." 

 What do you suppose it was that they called 

 a bee-cradle V They were a good deal trou- 

 bled about it, and Avrote, asking us if we 

 knew any such thing. They said it seemed 

 to be something the bees had to keep a young 

 bee in, and they could not think of any thing 

 better than a cradle! How should they 

 know, any wav V I don't know whether they 

 thought the 'bees rocked their babies to 

 sleep, or not; but it was the nearest way 

 they knew of to tell it. What was it they 

 meant? AVhy, a queen -cell, of course. 

 Well, now, those who translated Virgil had 

 not only this trouble, but they had to get 

 some word that would rhyme besides. Why, 

 the reporters of our daily papers can't even 

 write a report in English, so it sounds right 

 to a bee-man. Just think of "horse-meat 

 honey" and the like. Ernest is now study- 



