USE AND ABUSE, 825 
wings into the fire, and it became necessary to put wire- 
gauze over the top of the chimney also. (586). 
G18. As we have seen thousands of bees destroyed in 
such places, thousands more hopelessly struggling in the 
deluding sweets, and yet increasing thousands, all unmind- 
ful of their danger, blindly hovering over and alighting on 
them, how often have they reminded us of the infatuation 
of those who abandon themselves to the intoxicating cup! 
Even although such persons see the miserable victims of 
this degrading vice falling all around them into premature 
graves, they still press madly on, trampling, as it were, 
over their dead bodies, that they too may sink into the 
same abyss, and their sun also go down in hopeless 
gloom. 
The avaricious bee that, despising the slow process of 
extracting nectar from ‘‘every opening flower,’’ plunges 
recklessly into the tempting sweets, has ample time to be- 
wail her folly. Even if she does not forfeit her life, she 
returns home with a woe-begone look, and sorrowful note, 
in marked contrast with the bright hues and merry sounds 
with which her industrious fellows come back from their 
happy rovings amid ‘‘ budding honey-flowers and sweetly- 
breathing fields.”’ 
