198 A TOUR ROUND MY GARDEN. 



simply for that one of the two queens which is the elder, and 

 who, consequently, has become in a state to prove a mother 

 before her departure from the hive, because she alone promises 

 them with certainty that which is the sole cause of their 

 labours, the sole motives of their zeal. The crimes of the 

 queen are simply her youth and her maiden condition. 



"Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere." 



If she is killed, if aU those born at the same time are mas- 

 sacred in the old hive, it is because bees are not progressive, 

 and have not yet imagined a constitutional government and 

 the balance of power, which, if it were not achieved, would 

 only arrive in its highest point of perfection in immobility. 



The government of the bees, I must admit, has with reason 

 been represented as a model of the best monarchy that can 

 possibly exist ; but it was very wrong to give them laws and 

 a code, judges, advocates, and gend'armes. 



What constitutes the excellence of this government is, that 

 the bees have none of these, and that they don't want them, 

 because every one has its part to play, and never dreams of 

 playing another; because workers never think of becoming 

 drones, and drones never intrigue to be above queens. 



Whilst human societies are constantly full of pertur- 

 bations and misery, they form a concert, in which each instru- 

 ment wishes to make itself heard above the rest, and in which 

 no one will confine himself to his own part, which must pro- 

 duce, and does in fact produce, a glorious charivari. 



