194 THE BEE-HIVE. 



justice to the honeyed theme ? How discourse sweetly and 

 wisely, yet withal briefly above all, with aught of novelty 

 of those favoured labours sung by a Virgil, chronicled by a 

 Yarro, hymned by a Watts, dramatised in the " good old 

 times " of our Virgin Queen royally patronised in the better 

 new times of our wedded monarch ? 



A bee-hive, however, is no easily exhausted store, con- 

 taining, as an object of thought, an infinite number of things 

 besides bees, or wax, or honey. It is a perfect emblematic 

 treasury, filled with analogies, precepts, patterns, poetry, 

 morality, divinity. 



In our sketch of bees as "a body politic," we have seen 

 indeed how ill befitting is their waxen imagery to serve as a 

 model for human imitation how frail to falling dynasties the 

 support of waxen pillars ; but there yet remains in the 

 economy of the hive (especially as exhibited in bee labour) 

 enough in plenty for counsel, for reproof, for pattern, for 

 reflection, for admiration all resolving themselves into adora- 

 tion of Him to whom adoration alone is due. 



But it is time, without further prelude, to open the straw 

 casket wherein so many jewels are contained ; though, in 

 truth, it is in their very profusion, full as much as in their 

 previous appropriation, that a difficulty lies. How from the 

 flowers of bee economy, in themselves so numerous, and nu- 

 merously culled, shall we select a small and simple posy, fit on 

 this summer day to refresh without overpowering ? How, in 



