CHAPTER XII 



THE COMB-BUILDERS 



IN the foregoing chapters an attempt has been 

 made to show that the honey-bee lives and 

 moves and has her being in a world which 

 must be actuated by something better than mere 

 instinct, in the common usage of the term. To 

 the modern biologist — the earnest out-of-door 

 student of life under all its manifestations — this 

 may appear as a rather obvious and unnecessary 

 gilding of gold, and the only question yet un- 

 decided may seem to be where in the scale of 

 reason the honey-bee is to find her equitable place. 

 All bee-lovers must plead guilty to an inveterate 

 partizanship, the writer frankly among their number. 

 There is no laodiceanism in bee-craft ; and, all the 

 world over, it may be said that, where a few bee- 

 hives have been got together, there is always to 

 be found a red-hot enthusiast not far off. The 

 word "freemasonry," in the English tongue, has 

 grown to be a synonym for the truest fraternity ; 

 but just as real, and almost as far-reaching, is the 

 brotherhood among keepers of bees. No doubt, 

 13—2 19s 



