68 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
texts of the stones and brooks. These are the 
true poets, romancists, tellers of wondrous tales ; 
and these will hold the crowd—which is never far 
astray in its intuitions—when all the singers of 
sick fancies and the harpers on frayed golden 
strings have gone off in melancholy dudgeon to 
their own place. 
The old story—which has held such a long and 
honoured position in school text-books, and in the 
writings of those who tell of Nature’s wonders 
from the commanding watch-tower of the study 
fire—the old story of the queen-bee ruling her thirty 
or forty thousand dutiful subjects, and guiding 
them unerringly in all their marvellous exploits and 
enterprises, must go now with the rest. For the 
truth, as modern observers have unquestionably 
established it, is that the queen-bee is no ruler in 
the hive, but even a more obedient subject than 
any. The real instigators and contrivers of every- 
thing that takes place within the hive are the 
worker-bees themselves. The queen has neither 
part nor lot in the direction of the common polity ; 
nor has she any power, mental or physical, to 
help in the carrying out of public works. Her 
sole duty is that of motherhood, and even in this 
she derives all initiative from the sovereign worker- 
bees. She is little more than an ingenious piece 
of mechanism, and carefully guarded and cherished 
accordingly. She has certain propensities, and 
certain elemental passions, which she can always 
