On the Threshold of the Hive 
provided always that what he seeks be in 
accordance with their laws and their virtues ; 
for beyond all the desires of this strange 
god who has taken possession of them, 
who is too vast to be seen and too alien 
to be understood, their eyes see further than 
the eyes of the god himself, and their one 
thought is the accomplishment, with un- 
tiring sacrifice, of the mysterious duty of 
their race. 
4 
Let us now, having learned from books 
all that they had to teach us of a very 
ancient history, leave the science others 
have acquired, and look at the bees with 
our own eyes. An hour spent in the midst 
of the apiary will be less instructive per- 
haps, but the things we shall see will 
be infinitely more stimulating and more 
actual. 
I have not yet forgotten the first apiary 
I saw, where I learned to love the bees. 
It was many years ago in a large village 
of Dutch Flanders, the sweet and pleasant 
country whose love for brilliant colour 
15 
