32 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
late as the year 1679, believed that the worker- 
bees gathered from the flowers not only the germs 
of life, but the actual corporeal substance, of the 
young bees. 
He pointed triumphantly to the little globular 
lumps of many-coloured pollen which bees so 
industriously fetch into the hives during the 
breeding-season, and asserted that these were the 
actual bodily matter from which the young bees 
developed. He also maintained that every hive 
was ruled over by a king, but here Rusden was 
evidently trying to serve two masters. No doubt 
he was a true ‘“ Abhorrer,” and heartily detested 
anything at variance with the doctrine of the 
divine right of monarchs. He had faithfully copied 
from Virgil as to the gathering of this generative 
substance from the flowers; but he felt that, as 
the King’s Bee-Master, it was incumbent on him 
to put in a good word for the restored monarchy if 
he could. There were still many in the realm who 
were altogether opposed to the Restoration, and 
probably more who were waverers between the 
faiths. And Rusden, doubtless, saw that if he 
could point to any parallel instance in Nature 
where the system of monarchy was the divinely 
ordained state, he would be furnishing his patron 
with a magnificent argument in favour of his king- 
ship, and one, moreover, which would especially 
appeal to the ignorant and superstitious masses. 
No doubt, however, in taking up this position, 
