62 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



36 



But enough on this point ; were I to cite every instance 

 I should never have done. To return to the queen, v^^hose 

 position in the hive, and the part that she plays therein, 

 we shall most fitly describe by declaring her to be the captive 

 heart of the city, and the centre around which its intelligence 

 revolves. Unique sovereign though she be, she is also the 

 royal servant, the responsible delegate of love, and its captive 

 custodian. Her people serve her and venerate her, but they 

 never forget that it is not to her person that their homage 

 is given, but to the mission that she fulfils and the destiny 

 she represents. It would not be easy for us to find a human 

 republic whose scheme comprised more of the desires of our 

 planet, or a democracy that offered an independence more 

 perfect and rational, combined with a submission more logical 

 and more complete. And nowhere, surely, should we dis- 

 cover more painful and absolute sacrifice. Let it not be 

 imagined that I admire this sacrifice to the extent that I 

 admire its results. It were evidently to be desired that these 

 results might be obtained at the cost of less renouncement and 

 suffering. But the principle once accepted — and this is 

 needful, perhaps, in the scheme of our globe — its organisation 

 compels our wonder. Whatever the human truth on this 

 point may be, life in the hive is not looked on as a series of 

 more or less pleasant hours, whereof it is wise that those 

 moments only should be soured and embittered that are 

 essential for maintaining existence. The bees regard it as 

 a ^reat common duty, impartially distributed amongst them 



