THE FOUNDATION OF THE CITY 119 



that which perhaps may be hidden behind these sorrows ; 

 and, urged on by this endeavour, we must not turn our 

 eyes away, but must steadily, fixedly watch these sorrows 

 and study them with a courage and interest as keen as 

 though they were joys. It is right that before we judge 

 nature, before we complain, we should at least ask every 

 question that we can possibly ask, 



65 



We have seen that the workers, when free for the 

 moment from the threatening fecundity of the queen, hasten to 

 erect cells for provisions, the construction of which is more 

 economical and capacity greater. We have seen, too, that the 

 queen prefers to lay in the smaller cells for which she is 

 incessantly clamouring. When these are wanting, however, 

 or till they be provided, she resigns herself to laying her 

 eggs in the large cells she finds in her road. 



These eggs, though absolutely identical with those 

 from which workers are hatched, will give birth to males, 

 or drones. Now, conversely to what takes place when a 

 worker is turned into queen, it is here neither the form nor 

 the capacity of the cell that produces this change ; for from 

 an egg laid in a large cell and afterwards transferred to a 

 worker's cell (a most difficult operation, because of the 

 microscopic minuteness and extreme fragility of the egg, 

 but one that I have four or five times successfully accom- 

 plished) there will issue an undeniable male, though more 

 or less atrophied. It follows therefore that the queen must 

 possess the power, while laying, of knowing or determining 



