THE SWARM 33 



the side of the abode they have but this moment quitted, 

 they would seem, be the disaster never so great that shall 

 now have befallen them, to have wholly forgotten the peace 

 and the happy activity that once they had known there, the 

 abundant wealth and the safety that had then been their 

 portion ; and all, one by one, and down to the last of them, 

 will perish of hunger and cold around their unfortunate 

 queen rather than return to the home of their birth, whose 

 sweet odour of plenty, the fragrance indeed of their own 

 past assiduous labour, reaches them even in their distress. 



17 

 That is a thing, some will say, that men would not 

 do ; a proof that the bee, notwithstanding the marvels of 

 its organisation, still is lacking in intellect and veritable con- 

 sciousness. Is this so certain ? Other beings, surely, may 

 possess an intellect that differs from ours and produces 

 different results without therefore being inferior. And be- 

 sides, are we, even in this little human parish of ours, such 

 infallible judges of matters that pertain to the spirit ? Can 

 we so readily divine the thoughts that may govern the two 

 or three people whom we may chance to see moving and 

 talking behind a closed window when their words do not 

 reach us ? Or let us suppose that an inhabitant of Venus 

 or Mars were to contemplate us from the height of a moun- 

 tain, and watch the little black specks that we form in space 

 as we come and go in the streets and squares of our towns. 

 Would the mere sight of our movements, our buildings, 

 machines, and canals, convey to him any precise idea of 



E 



