29 2 The Poets and Nature. 



1 ' She. But they say the bee's a rover, 



Who will fly when sweets are gone, 

 And, when once the kiss is over, 

 Faithless brooks will wander on. 



11 He. Nay, if flowers will lose their looks, 

 If sunny bank will wear away, 

 'Tis but right that bees and brooks 

 Should sip and kiss them while they may." Moore. 



' ' Love the result is of all the graces 

 Which flow from a thousand several faces." Waller. 



' ' With the bee he doth rejoice 

 Every minute to change choice, 

 Counting he were then in bliss, 

 If that each fair face were his." Greene. 



Yet here and again, with an effort of fancy, this destroying 

 angel of the peace of flowers, the breaker of the hearts of 

 lilies, is spoken of as constant in love : 



" Thus, as the bee from bank to bower 

 Assiduous sips at every flower, 

 But rests on none till that be found 

 Where most nectareous sweets abound." Cowper. 



" The bee through many a garden roves, 



And hums his lay of courtship o'er ; 

 But when he finds the flower he loves, 



He settles there and hums no more." Moore. 



So it will be seen that in character the bee has violent 

 contrasts, now with honest music assiduous in toil, now 

 frivolously trifling with the innocence of virgin flowers. 

 As busy, it is held up to the idle grasshopper as an example, 

 otherwise it is lectured as listless, drowsy, vagrant. 



Allan Ramsay describes the bee as a prig of the first 

 magnitude : 



" Before her hive a paughty Bee 

 Observ'd a humble midding Flie, 



