The Swarm 
the royal servant, the responsible delegate of 
love, and its captive custodian. Her people 
serve her and venerate her, but they never 
forget that it is not to her person that their 
homage is given, but to the mission that she 
fulfils and the destiny she represents. It 
would not be easy for us to find a human 
republic whose scheme comprised more of 
the desires of our planet, or a democracy 
that offered an independence more perfect 
and rational, combined with a submission 
more logical and more complete. And 
nowhere, surely, should we discover more 
painful and absolute sacrifice. Let it not 
be imagined that I admire this sacrifice to 
the extent that I admire its results. It were 
evidently to be desired that these results 
might be obtained at the cost of less re- 
nouncement and suffering. But the prin- 
ciple once accepted—and this is needful, 
perhaps, in the scheme of our globe—its 
organisation compels our wonder. What- 
ever the human truth on this point may 
be, life in the hive is not looked on as a 
series of more or less pleasant hours, whereof 
it is wise that those moments only should 
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