66 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



US, and that of a hive of bees with its attendant 

 swarms ! 



The former, we are told, took its rise in a single 

 pair — the lord of the creation and his mate. Then 

 followed workers, tillers of the soil, who sowed and 

 reaped, constructed dwellings, and collected provision 

 for themselves and their oflFspring ; also warriors, who 

 attacked and defended the city vrith its inhabitants ; 

 and then, in the earliest era no doubt, there arose 

 the "privileged classes" (equivocal privileges were 

 theirs), who lived by the labour of others, and spent 

 their time in idleness. Next we hear of wanderings 

 and migrations of new colonies, offshoots from the 

 parent stock ; of new cities founded by their labours 

 and defended by their arms. So it has been from 

 time immemorial, and so it will probably continue 

 until the earth is fully peopled. 



Now turn we to the Bees. 



Their Eve may at least spring into existence (as 

 we shall see hereafter), bearing within her the off- 

 spring, still unborn, that is to produce her whole 

 colony. First, there appear the workers, who, like 

 the human workers, sow* and reap, and gather 

 honey ; the citizens who erect their habitations, ela- 

 borating even the necessary materials from their own 

 bodies: next follow watchmen, warriors, and lazy 

 drones, the privileged classes; and lastly, we have 

 the colony, the swarm of emigrants led once more 



* That they literally sow seeds we shall find to be the case 

 when we consider the habits of the worker. 



