ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE HIVE 5 



bees. And the closer our acquaintance with them, the nearer 

 is our ignorance brought to us of the depths of their real 

 existence ; but such ignorance is better than the other kind, 

 which is unconscious, and satisfied. 



Does an analogous work on the bee exist ? I believe 

 I have read almost all that has been written on bees ; but 

 of kindred matter I know only Michelet's chapter at the 

 end of his book, " The Insect," and Ludwig Biichner's essay 

 in his " Mind in Animals." Michelet merely hovers on the 

 fringe of his subject ; Biichner's treatise is comprehensive 

 enough, but contains so many hazardous statements, so much 

 long-discarded gossip and hearsay, that I suspect him of never 

 having left his library, never having set forth himself to 

 question his heroines, or opened one of the many hundreds 

 of rustling, wing-lit hives which we must profane before our 

 instinct can accord with their secret, before we can perceive 

 the spirit and perfume, the atmosphere and mystery, of these 

 virgin daughters of toil. The book smells not of the bee, or 

 its honey, and has the defects of many a learned work whose 

 conclusions often are preconceived, while their scientific attain- 

 ment is composed of a vast array of doubtful anecdotes collected 

 on every side. But in this essay of mine he and I will not 

 often meet each other; for our starting-point, our aim, and 

 our point of view are all very different. 



The bibliography of the bee (we will begin with the 

 books so as to get rid of them as soon as we can, and go 

 to the source of the books) is very extensive. From the 



