The Swarm 



a future that goes further and further 

 back ever since the world began. And, 

 for the ' sake of this future, each one 

 renounces more than half of her rights 

 and her joys. The queen bids farewell 

 to freedom, the light of day, and the 

 calyx of flowers ; the workers give five 

 or six years of their life, and shall never 

 know love, or the joys of maternity. 

 The queen's brain turns to pulp, that the 

 reproductive organs may profit ; in the 

 workers these organs atrophy, to the bene- 

 fit of their intelligence. Nor would it 

 be fair to allege that the will plays no 

 part in all these renouncements. We 

 have seen that each worker's larva can 

 be transformed into a queen if lodged 

 and fed on the royal plan; and similarly 

 could each royal larva be turned into 

 worker if her food were changed and 

 her cell reduced. These mysterious elec- 

 tions take place every day in the golden 

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