1883 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



3-to 



we are working busily here together for 

 something that can not be computed in dol- 

 lars and cents. 



VIRGIIi^S TREATISE ON BEES. 



C mttnucd. 



THE ORIGIN OF TIS-PAN MUSIC. 



i 



i^ OME, now, of nature's gifts to bees I'll tell, 

 " How Jupiter did cause them to excel; 



For what reward they sought the tuneful 

 sound 

 And clanging brass of priests on Cretan ground, 

 And feared the king of heaven, whose power did rise 

 Within the cave beneath the Cretan skies. (1) 



BEES AS AN ORGANIZED NATION. 



Bees, and they only, ('2) of all things create. 

 Have common offspring, (3) public buildings great. 

 As of a city whose undying cause 

 'Dures on for ever under mighty laws; (4) 

 Alone their hearts with love of country move, 

 Alone their settled household gods they love. (5) 

 Of coming winter mindful, swift they ply 

 Their work in summer, and their stores lay by. 



DIVISION OF LABOR. (6) 



Some watchful seek the food that nature yields. 

 And by a fixed agreement scour the fields; (7) 

 And part within the inclosure of their homes 

 Do lay the first foundation for the combs. 

 The soft propolis that on bark appears (8) 

 Placing, like sad Narcissus' lasting tears; (9) 

 From thence with art the tough wax they suspend, 

 While others all their care and labor lend 

 To nurture up, their numbers to replace. 

 The full-grown youth, the, hope of all the race; 

 Others, the purest honey crowded stow. 

 And cells with liquid nectar cause to grow; (10) 

 Others there are to whom by lot there fell 

 The keeping of the gates to guard them well. 

 These, observations take on clouds of heaven. 

 And warnings give ere harmful showers arc driv- 

 en, (11) 

 Else from those coming in they take the loads. 

 Or, phalanx formed, forth from the Inclosed abodes 

 The drones, ignoble herd, they sternly drive, (12) 

 And strict forbid their access to the hive. 

 Tdu3 glows the work with zeal almost sublime. 

 And fragrant honey reeks with smell of thyme. 



COMPARING LITTLE THINGS WITH GREAT. 



As when from metal mass in waxen heat 

 The Cyoiops haste Jove's thunderbolts to beat, (13) 

 Some, blast on blast with buU's-hide bellows make, 

 The hissing shafts some temper in the lake; 

 Meanwhile, with blows laid on. Mount .'Etna groans, 

 Each following each in rhythmic thunder-tones; 

 With mighty foi'ce their giant arms they raise. 

 And turn the bolt with foi'ceps divers ways. 

 Not otherwise, if little things with great (14) 

 One may compare, the fervent love innate 

 To Attic bees, of holding honeyed store. 

 Each in his duty urges evermore. 



(1) In this mouth's section we run upon same of 

 the queer things that little people in Virgil's time 

 had to believe. I'll tell the story over; but as to be- 

 lieving it, you don't " have to." You notice, the 

 poet does not explain much himself: he rather took 

 it for granted that so well known a doctrine did not 

 need much explaining. 



The Bomans taught that there were many gods, 



and that these many gods had a king over them who 

 was the supreme ruler of heaven and earth. A great 

 while ago Saturn was the king of heaven. After a 

 while he had a little baby-son whose name was Jupi- 

 ter. Somehow or other, Saturn found out that his 

 son would grow up to b3 greater than himself — 

 would be king of heaven in his place, while he would 

 have to take a back seat. After rcQecting upon the 

 matter, he resolved that he would cat little Jupiter 

 up before he got big enough to be king. Some kind 

 friends of the baby desired to save his life by hiding 

 him ; but as babies will cry, and Saturn would bo cer- 

 tain to hear him, the project was a pretty diflicult 

 one. At last it was managed in this wise: There 

 were a lot of priests in Crete who conducted their 

 worship with an uncar;hly racket, made by pound- 

 ing on metal iuslrumcnts. They kindly consented 

 to worship a little more and a little marc zealously 

 than usual, so as to keep up a rumpus all the time, 

 night and d:iy. There was a cave there where the 

 baby could be kept out of sight, and the noisy wor- 

 ship prevented Saturn from hearing him. A moth- 

 erly goat furnished the milk for the baby; and to 

 crown all, the bees interested themselves in the mat- 

 ter, and brought honey to the cave for the baby. 

 And so it cama about, that Jupiter grew up on milk 

 and honey until he was strong enough to put down 

 old baby-eating Saturn and take the throne himself. 

 Of course, Jupiter couldn't do less than to reward 

 the bees that had fed him so long; and so he gave 

 them wisdom and honor above all the insect ci'sa- 

 tion. And thej', on their part, are very fond of re- 

 membering how they won their great honor, inso- 

 much that, even when they are running away, if you 

 will make a racket for them, like that which the 

 Cretan priests used to make, they arc so pleased 

 that they will kindly stop and consent to go whore 

 you wish them to go. 



(3) I think we may mitigate this statement by sup- 

 posing that Virgil meant that no other creatures 

 showed all those wonderful points, rather than that 

 no other creature could show any of them. 



(3) "Common offspring." Here the author is "just 

 a shouting." He gets near a point that has been al- 

 most totally neglected by moderns, although it may 

 be of considerable importance. To illustrate the 

 matter, a grafted tree is the common offspring of 

 the tree that furnished the stock and the tree that 

 furnished the cion. It is usual to think only of the 

 latter as the parent tree; but it is well known that 

 the former does exert a certain influence. Take a 

 twig of Early-Harvest apple, and cut it into two 

 cions. Now graft one on a tree that bears small, 

 late, sour, crabbed apples, and the other on a tree 

 that bears large, good, early apples. Both trees will 

 be Early Harvest — " pure" Early Harvest, we may 

 say; but, if I am right, they will differ a good deal 

 from cac^ other in the direction of their original 

 fruit. I have boen getting more and more convinc- 

 ed that the same sort of warping takes place in bees. 

 Who has not seen how certain hives, or groups of 

 hives, retain good or ill qualities from year to year, 

 although the queens have been changed meantime? 

 If we can put any faith in the statements of seem- 

 ingly truthful men, the Cyprians were gentle at first 

 (while the brood reared by gentler bees lasted), and 

 afterward became perfect furies. I pretty strongly 

 believe that, in constitution, energy, healthfulness, 

 wintering qualities, and perhaps some other things, 

 bees inherit not wholly from the queen and drone, 

 but also in a lesser degree from the workers that ee* 



