The Foundation of the City 
—or rather, do nothing of the kind; it 
would be a useless cruelty, for the fact is 
established beyond any doubt—but were 
you to mutilate, or crush, on a piece of 
comb placed a few steps from their dwelling, 
twenty or thirty bees that have all issued 
from the same hive, those you have left 
untouched will not even turn their head. 
With their tongue, fantastic as a Chinese 
weapon, they will tranquilly continue to 
absorb the liquid they hold more precious 
than life, heedless of the agony whose 
last gestures are almost touching them, 
of the cries of distress that arise all around. 
And when the comb is empty, their anxiety 
that nothing shall be lost, their eagerness 
to gather the honey which clings to the 
victims, will induce them tranquilly to climb 
over dead and dying, unmoved by the pre- 
sence of the first, and never dreaming of 
helping the others. In this case, therefore, 
they have no notion of the danger they run, 
seeing that they are wholly untroubled by 
the death that is scattered about them; 
and they have not the slightest sense of soli- 
darity or pity. As regards the danger, the 
127 
