324 The Honey-Makers 



over, it is in some places believed that the souls of people 

 leave the world and return to it in the form of bees, — a 

 myth with which we are already familiar in the more 

 eastern lands. 



With its heavenward-striving flight in the realms of light, 

 the bee is a symbol of resurrection. It does not here, as 

 in Greece and Italy, come forth from a dead body, though 

 we are told that Christ has been compared to the sacrificial 

 bull, and the Christians to the bees that came forth from 

 it, — a figure evidently borrowed from classical literature. 



Peter of Capua called Christ "Apis jetheria," and he is 

 elsewhere denominated, " Our honey." 



Because of their faith and their good works prominent 

 virgins were credited with the attributes of bees, and Saint 

 Ambrose calls Saint Agnes " Apis argumentosa." This re- 

 calls the name of " Melissa " given to the priestesses of the 

 pagan deities. 



In a painting by Titian of the Virgin Mary the Christ 

 Child is holding a bee in his hand, and the Virgin Mary 

 has been denominated " the honey of the world." 



Thomas of Cantiprat wrote a religious work in which all 

 the Christian virtues are shown to reside in bees. 



But Pater Abraham a Santa Clara in his book compares 

 only the monastic life to the bee-hive, because the bees 

 live as virgins ; and this idea was the fundamental one in the 

 illustrations drawn from bees by many others of the churchly 

 fathers. The bee was very generally a symbol of the 

 greatest purity, and the Immaculate Conception has been 

 compared to the flower from which the bee extracted 

 honey without violating it. 



Herbert said, — 



" Bees work for men, and yet they never bruise 

 Their Master's flower, but leave it, having done. 

 As fair as ever and as fit to use ; 

 So both the flower doth stay and honey run." 



