The Life of the Bee 
It disposes pitilessly of the wealth and 
the happiness, the liberty and life, of all this 
winged people; and yet with discretion, as 
though governed itself by some great duty. 
It regulates day by day the number of births, 
and contrives that these shall strictly accord 
with the number of flowers that brighten 
the country-side. It decrees the queen’s 
deposition, or warns her that she must de- 
part; it compels her to bring her own rivals 
into the world, and rears them royally, pro- 
tecting them from their mother’s political 
hatred. So, too, in accordance with the gene- 
rosity of the flowers, the age of the spring, 
and the probable dangers of the nuptial 
flight, will it permit or forbid the first-born 
of the royal princesses to slay in their cradles 
her younger sisters, who are singing the song 
of the queens. At other times, when the 
season wanes, and flowery hours grow shorter, 
it will command the workers themselves to 
slaughter the whole imperial brood, that the 
era of revolutions may close, and work 
become the sole object of all. The “‘spirit 
of the hive” is prudent and thrifty, but by 
no means parsimonious. And thus, aware, 
34 
