The Life of the Bee 
things happening before us in a hive of 
glass, is the entire absence of hesitation, of 
the slightest division of opinion. There is 
not a trace of discussion or discord. The 
atmosphere of the city is one of absolute 
unanimity, preordained, which reigns over 
all; and every one of the bees would appear 
to know in advance the thought of her 
sisters. And yet this moment is the gravest, 
the most vital, in their entire history. They 
have to choose between three or four courses 
whose results, in the distant future, will be 
totally different; which, too, the slightest 
accident may render disastrous. They have 
to reconcile the multiplication of species— 
which is their passion, or innate duty—with 
the preservation of the hive and its people. 
They will err at times; they will successively 
send forth three or four swarms, thereby 
completely denuding the mother-city; and 
these swarms, too feeble to organise, will 
succumb, it may be, at the approach of 
Winter, caught unawares by this climate 
of ours, which is different far from their 
original climate that the bees, notwithstand- 
ing all, have never forgotten. In such 
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