The Life of the Bee 
ones will often have as many as four or five 
thousand ; for the more a hive inclines to 
its ruin, the more males will it produce. It 
may be said that, on an average, an apiary 
composed of ten colonies will at a given 
moment send an army of ten thousand males 
into the air, of whom ten or fifteen at most 
will have the occasion of performing the one 
act for which they were born. 
In the meanwhile they exhaust the sup- 
plies of the city; each one of the parasites 
requiring the unceasing labour of five or 
six workers to maintain it in its abounding 
and voracious idleness, its activity being 
indeed solely confined to its jaws. But 
Nature is always magnificent when dealing 
with the privileges and prerogatives of 
love. She becomes miserly only when 
doling out the organs and instruments of 
labour. She is especially severe on what 
men have termed virtue, whereas she 
strews the path of the most uninteresting 
lovers with innumerable jewels and favours. 
“Unite and multiply; there is no other 
law, or aim, than love,’ would seem to 
be her constant cry on all sides, while she 
244 
