266 THE BEE NATION. 



merely an empty show, but really discharges actual and 

 essential duties, without which nothing could exist. Apart 

 from this, the queen in the simplicity and uniformity of her 

 work, and in the half, though respectful, imprisonment in 

 which she is kept, is a complete contrast to her intellectually 

 and physically developed and active subjects, so that here, 

 as so often among men, it appears fair to say that stupidity or 

 narrowness, or perhaps only mediocrity, rules over reason.* 

 In any case this sovereignty, us we have seen, is much 

 restricted by the subjects themselves, and these seem to 

 indemnify themselves for the compulsory endurance of a 

 monarchical head, by observing amongst themselves, on the 

 other hand, the maxims of the most extreme democracy, 

 of the widest Socialism and Communism. One is as 

 good as another, the beautiful principle is unconditionally 

 obeyed : " One for all all for one." They have no 

 private property, no family, no private dwelling, but 

 hang in thick clumps within the common room in the 

 narrow space between the combs, taking turns for brief 

 nightly repose. The building, cleansing and* working 

 are also carried on partially all through the night. 

 All stores are common ; there is only the stiite maga- 

 zine, and all are fed from this without distinction 

 of person. If want and hunger enter, all die alike. 

 The queen here is an exception and has the privilege of 

 dying last. The bees are, however, egoists enough in such 

 times of need, or in threatening famine from continued bad 

 weather, to throw the larvae, the drone larvae first, out of 

 the cells. This also happens, on the other hand, when lack 

 of place for storing provisions occurs, owing to very success- 

 ful foraging. The larva? are. then thrown out, or the 

 nursing narrowed down to the uttermost. 



* Espinas ("Animal Communities'') protests against the expressions 

 " monarchy " and " queen '' as descriptions of the bee State (although 

 these expressions have always only been used figuratively), because 

 the queen exercises no real sovereignty, but only acts as mother, and 

 the workers are not subjeets, but help as foster-mothers and nurses. 

 He forgets that in the true constitutional system the human being also 

 does not rule, but only acts as the central point of the State, which 

 lends him harmonious support, and thus has the greatest resemblance 

 to the position of the queen in the bee State. Espinas himself admits 

 this in another place, by calling a beehive a "moral organism," or a 

 real consciousness, whose leading idea, or chief part, is the mother. 



