bee's-wax, 121 



" Leave, gentle wax, and manners, blame us not ; 

 To know our enemies' minds, we 'd rip their hearts ; 

 Their papers are more lawful." — Lear, Act IV. Sc. VI. 



It is again mentioned, when Imogen, the fond and 

 faithful Imogen, receives a letter from her lord Leo- 

 natus ; her words are — 



" Good wax, thy leave,— blest be 

 Yon bees, that make these locks of counsel ! Lovers 

 And men in dangerous bonds pray not alike ; 

 Though forfeiters you cast in prison yet, 

 You clasp young Cupid's tables." 



Ct/mbeline, Act III. Sc. II. 



You are of course aware, that the seaUng-wax we 

 now employ consists of lac and resin, combined with 

 some suitable pigment for giving it the desired colour. 

 This lac is itself an insect product, being secreted 

 by a species of coccus common in the East Indies. 

 No portion of bees'-wax enters into the composition 

 of the material now used for sealing letters ; but that 

 it may at a former period have been so used, I ^^•iU not 

 presume to deny. At present, it forms the principal 

 ingredient of the soft and colourless wax attached to 

 letters patent under the Great Seal, or to charters of 

 corporations, and public documents of a similar 

 character ; but " the lover, sighing like furnace," 

 never confides his sorrows to the custody of the 

 bee's wax. 



The researches of modern times have ascertained 



