228 THE LIFE OF THE BEE 



credits Pericles, viz., that individuals are happier in the bosom 

 of a prosperous city, even though they suffer themselves, than 

 when individually prospering in the midst of a languishing state. 

 It protects the hard-working slave in the powerful city, while 

 those who have no duties, whose association is only precarious, 

 are abandoned to the nameless, formless enemies that dwell in 

 the minutes of time, in the movements of the universe, and in 

 the recesses of space. This is not the moment to discuss the 

 scheme of Nature, or to ask ourselves whether it would be well 

 for man to follow it ; but it is certain that wherever the 

 infinite mass allows us to seize the appearance of an idea, the 

 appearance takes this road whereof we know not the end. Let 

 it suffice that we note the persistent care with which Nature 

 preserves, and fixes in the evolving race, all that has been won 

 from the hostile inertia of matter. She records each happy 

 effort, and contrives we know not what special and benevolent 

 laws to counteract the inevitable recoil. This progress, whose 

 existence among the most intelligent species can scarcely be 

 denied, has perhaps no aim beyond its initial impetus, and knows 

 not v/hither it goes. But at least, in a world where nothing 

 save a few facts of this kind indicates a precise will, it is signi- 

 ficant enough that our eyes, once unsealed, should behold certain 

 creatures rising thus, slowly and continuously ; and had the bees 

 revealed to us only this mysterious spiral of light in the over- 

 powering darkness, that were enough to induce us not to regret 

 the time we have given to their little gestures and humble 

 habits, which seem so far away and are yet so nearly akin to our 

 grand passions and arrogant destinies. 



