THE SWARM 23 



liberty and life, of all this winged people ; and yet with dis- 

 cretion, as though governed itself by some great duty. It 

 regulates day by day the number of births, and contrives that 

 these shall strictly accord with the number of flowers that 

 brighten the country-side. It decrees the queen's deposition, 

 or warns her that she must depart ; it compels her to bring 

 her own rivals into the world, and rears them royally, pro- 

 tecting them from their mother's political hatred. So, too, 

 in accordance with the generosity of the flowers, the age of 

 the spring, and the probable dangers of the nuptial flight, will 

 it permit or forbid the first-born of the royal princesses to 

 slay in their cradles her younger sisters, who are singing the 

 song of the queens. At other times, when the season wanes, 

 and flowery hours grow shorter, it will command the workers 

 themselves to slaughter the whole imperial brood, that the 

 era of revolutions may close, and work become the sole object 

 of all. The " spirit of the hive " is prudent and thrifty, but 

 by no means parsimonious. And thus, aware, it would seem, 

 that nature's laws are somewhat wild and extravagant in all 

 that pertains to love, it tolerates, during summer days of 

 abundance, the embarrassing presence in the hive of three 

 or four hundred males, from whose ranks the queen about to 

 be born shall select her lover ; three or four hundred foolish, 

 clumsy, useless, noisy creatures, who are pretentious, glut- 

 tonous, dirty, coarse, totally and scandalously idle, insatiable, 

 and enormous. 



But after the queen's impregnation, when flowers begin to 

 close sooner and open later, the spirit one morning will coldly 

 decree the simultaneous and general massacre of every male. 

 It regulates the workers' labours, with due regard to their age ; 



