The Swarm 
of the bees is the future. When we, in our 
study of human history, endeavour to gauge 
the moral force or greatness of a people 
or race, we have one standard of measure- 
ment only—the dignity and permanence of 
their ideal, and the abnegation wherewith 
they pursue it. Have we often encountered 
an ideal more conformable to the desires of 
the universe, more widely manifest, more 
disinterested and sublime; have we often 
discovered an abnegation more complete and 
heroic ? 
1g 
Strange little republic, that, for all its 
logic and gravity, its matured conviction 
and prudence, still falls victim to so vast 
and precarious a dream! Who shall tell 
us, oh little people that are so profoundly 
in earnest, that have fed on the warmth 
and the light and on nature’s purest, the 
soul of the flowers—wherein matter for 
once seems to smile and put forth its most 
wistful effort towards beauty and happiness— 
who shall tell us what problems you have 
resolved, but we not yet; what certitudes 
55 
