CHOICE 01' A MONABCH. 197 



from the legitimate king like a traitor ; a part of the people 

 revolt, and go and branch with him, where they would be lost, 

 were it not that, perceiving their error, they themselves efface 

 it by going to range themselves round the true king. The 

 tyrant, finding himself abandoned, goes and joins the general 

 swarm. But these virtuous insects, who pique themselves 

 upon all that concerns the honour of their king, conspire the 

 ruin of this turbulent fellow j they rush upon him, tear him 

 to pieces, trample him under foot, so that on the morrow he 

 is found dead, strangled under the hive, with some of his 

 accomplices." 



It is evident that when two young mothers leave the old 

 hive at the same time, the bees must make a choice ; but it is 

 difficult to ascertain what determines that choice. I cannot 

 think it can be precisely the gold which poets have discovered 

 on her person, and which humble prose must translate into 

 a russet brown. There is nothing to prove that bees attach 

 the same value to gold that we do. 



The cock of La Fontaine preferred the smallest grain of 

 millet to a pearl which he had found. I do not know why 

 La Fontaine seems to blame him by the introduction of the 

 second apologue. 



I do not perceive that yellow birds enjoy greater considera- 

 tion among other birds. The golden-crested regulus, so called 

 by men because it has on its head a tuft of orange-coloured 

 feathers, does not appear to have succeeded in getting its 

 royalty acknowledged among the other inhabitants of the air. 

 But nevertheless the poets and others have only been deceived 

 ,in the explanation they have given of the preference of the 

 !Bwarm for one of the two young queens. It is true, that in 

 general the young bees, in this case, decide in favour of the 

 Tedder of the two mother bees. It is true that the one that 

 ;is first abandoned, and then put to death, is of a darker 

 colour j but there is no necessity for attributing these two so 

 different fates to the various virtues of the first, or the 

 hideous vices of the second, nor even to her having a great 

 belly. I mentioned, not far back, that young bees are brown, 

 and that they become red as they grow old. I have likewise 

 told you, that at their birth their bellies were larger than 

 they would be afterwards. The preference of the bees is 



