THE SWARM 35 



to which they render essential service, although our means 

 of investigation have not yet enabled us to discover what the 

 precise nature of this service may be. There are others, 

 again, who are incessantly engaged in the most wearisome 

 labour, whether it be in great sheds full of wheels that for- 

 ever turn round and round, or close by the shipping, or in 

 obscure hovels, or on small plots of earth that from sunrise 

 to sunset they are constantly delving and digging. We are 

 led to believe that this labour must be an offence, and punish- 

 able. For the persons guilty of it are housed in filthy, ruinous, 

 squalid cabins. They are clothed in some colourless hide. So 

 great does their ardour appear for this noxious, or at any 

 rate useless, activity, that they scarcely allow themselves time 

 to eat or to sleep. In numbers they are to the others as a 

 thousand to one. It is remarkable that the species should 

 have been able to survive to this day under conditions so 

 unfavourable to its development. It should be mentioned, 

 however, that, apart from this characteristic devotion to 

 their wearisome toil, they appear inoffensive and docile, and 

 satisfied with the leavings of those who evidently are the 

 guardians, if not the saviours, of the race." 



18 



Is it not strange that the hive, which we vaguely survey 

 from the height of another world, should provide our first 

 questioning glance with so sure and profound a reply ? 

 Must we not admire the manner in which the thought or 

 the god that the bees obey is at once reveakd by their 

 edifices, wrought with such striking conviction, by their 



