On the Threshold of the Hive 
collected on every side. But in this essay 
of mine we rarely shall meet each other; 
for our starting-point, our aim, and our 
point of view are all very different. 
2 
The bibliography of the bee (we will 
begin with the books so as to get rid of 
them as soon as we can, and go to the 
source of the books) is very extensive. 
From the beginning, this strange little 
creature, that lived in a society under 
complicated laws and executed prodigious 
labours in the darkness, attracted the 
notice of men. Aristotle, Cato, Varro, 
Pliny, Columella, Palladius, all studied the 
bees; to say nothing of Aristomachus, 
who, according to Pliny, watched them 
for fifty-eight years, and of Phyliscus, 
whose writings are lost. But these dealt 
rather with the legend of the bee; and 
all that we can gather therefrom—which 
indeed is exceedingly littlk—we may find 
condensed in the fourth book of Virgil’s 
“ Georgics.” 
7 
