68 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



texts of the stones and .brooks. These are the 

 true poets, romancists, tellers of wondrous tales ; 

 and these will hold the crowd — which is never far 

 astray in its intuitions — when all the singers of 

 sick fancies and the harpers on frayed golden 

 strings have gone off in melancholy dudgeon to 

 their own place. 



The old story — which has held such a long and 

 honoured position in school text-books, and in the 

 writings of those who tell of Nature's wonders 

 from the commanding watch-tower of the study 

 fire — the old story of the queen-bee ruling her thirty 

 or forty thousand dutiful subjects, and guiding 

 them unerringly in all their marvellous exploits and 

 enterprises, must go now with the rest. For the 

 truth, as modern observers have unquestionably 

 established it, is that the queen-bee is no ruler in 

 the hive, but even a more obedient subject than 

 any. The real instigators and contrivers of every- 

 thing that takes place within the hive are the 

 worker-bees themselves. The queen has neither 

 part nor lot in the direction of the common polity ; 

 nor has she any power, mental or physical, to 

 help in the carrying out of public works. Her 

 sole duty is that of motherhood, and even in this 

 she derives all initiative from the sovereign worker- 

 bees. She is little more than an ingenious piece 

 of mechanism, and carefully guarded and cherished 

 accordingly. She has certain propensities, and 

 certain elemental passions, which she can always 



