lO 



THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



without giving an order, receiving obedience but not recogni- 

 tion. For the destiny once imposed by the seasons he has 

 substituted his will. He repairs the injustice of the year, 

 unites hostile repuWics, and equalises wealth. He restricts 

 or augments the births, regulates the fecundity of the queen, 

 dethrones her and installs another in her place, after dexterously 

 obtaining the reluctant consent of a people who would be 

 maddened at the mere suspicion of an inconceivable inter- 

 vention. When he thinks fit he will peacefully violate the 

 secret of the sacred chambers, and the elaborate, tortuous policy 

 of the palace. He will five or six times in succession deprive 

 the bees of the fruit of their labour without harming them, 

 without their becoming discouraged or even impoverished. 

 He proportions the store-houses and granaries of their dwell- 

 ings to the harvest of flowers that the Spring is spreading 

 over the dip of the hills. He compels them to reduce the 

 extravagant number of lovers who await the birth of the 

 royal princesses. In a word, he does with them what he 

 will, he obtains what he will, provided always that what he 

 seeks be in accordance with their laws and their virtues ; 

 for beyond all the desires of this strange god who has taken 

 possession of them, who is too vast to be seen and too alien 

 to be understood, their eyes see further than the eyes of the 

 god himself, and their one thought is the accomplishment, 

 with untiring sacrifice, of the mysterious duty of their race. 



Let us now, having learned from books all that they had 

 to teach us of a very ancient history, leave the science others 



