The Life of the Bee 



irresistible folly, a mechanical impulse, a 

 law of the species, a decree of nature, or 

 to the force that for all creatures lies hid- 

 den in the revolution of time. It is our 

 habit, in the case of the bees no less than 

 our own, to regard as fatality all that we 

 do not as yet understand. But now that 

 the hive has surrendered two or three of 

 its material secrets, we have discovered 

 that this exodus is neither instinctive nor 

 inevitable. It is not a blind emigration, 

 but apparently the well-considered sacrifice 

 of the present generation in favour of the 

 generation to come. The bee-keeper has 

 only to destroy in their cells the young 

 queens that still are inert, and, at the same 

 time, if nymphs and larvas abound, to 

 enlarge the store-houses and dormitories 

 of the nation, for this unprofitable tumult 

 instantaneously to subside, for work to 

 be at once resumed, and the flowers re- 

 visited ; while the old queen, who now is 

 S6 



