The Young Queens 



of the city is one of absolute unanimity^ 

 preordained, which reigns over all ; and 

 every one of the bees would appear to 

 know in advance the thought of her 

 sisters. And yet this moment is the 

 gravest, the most vital, in their entire 

 history. They have to choose between 

 three or four courses whose results, in the 

 distant future, will be totally different; 

 which, too, the slightest accident may 

 render disastrous. They have to rec- 

 oncile the multiplication of species — 

 which is their passion, or innate duty — 

 with the preservation of the hive and 

 its people. They will err at times; 

 they will successively send forth three or 

 four swarms, thereby completely denuding 

 the mother-city ; and these swarms, too 

 feeble to organise, will succumb, it may 

 be, at the approach of winter, caught un- 

 awares by this climate of ours, which is 

 different far from their original climate, that 

 249 



