The Life of the Bee 
better than the other kind, which is un- 
conscious, and satisfied. 
Does an analogous work on the bee 
exist? I believe I have read almost all 
that has been written on bees; but of kin- 
dred matter I know only Michelet’s chapter 
at the end of his book, ‘‘ The Insect,” and 
Ludwig Biichner’s essay in his “Mind in 
Animals.” Michelet merely hovers on the 
fringe of his subject; Biichner’s treatise is 
comprehensive enough, but contains so many 
hazardous statements, so much _long-dis- 
carded gossip and hearsay, that I suspect 
him of never having left his library, never 
having set forth himself to question his 
heroines, or opened one of the many hun- 
dreds of rustling, wing-lit hives which we 
must profane before our instinct can accord 
with their secret, before we can perceive the 
spirit and perfume, the atmosphere and 
mystery, of these virgin daughters of toil. 
The book smells not of the bee, or its 
honey, and has the defects of many a learned 
work whose conclusions often are precon- 
ceived, while their scientific attainment is 
composed of a vast array of doubtful anecdotes 
6 
