The Life of the Bee 
into the abyss of the future. Out of a 
thousand of them, one only, once in his 
life, will have to seek, in the depths of 
the azure, the presence of the royal virgin. 
Out of a thousand one only will have, for 
one instant, to follow in space the female 
who desires not to escape. That suffices. 
The partial power flings open her treasury, 
wildly, even deliriously. To every one of 
these unlikely lovers, of whom nine hundred 
and ninety-nine will be put to death a few 
days after the fatal nuptials of the thou- 
sandth, she has given thirteen thousand 
eyes on each side of their head, while the 
worker has only six thousand. According 
to Cheshire’s calculations, she has provided 
each of their antenne with thirty-seven 
thousand eight hundred olfactory cavities, 
while the worker has only five thousand 
in both. There we have an instance of the 
almost universal disproportion that exists 
between the gifts she rains upon love and 
her niggardly doles to labour; between the 
favours she accords to what shall, in an 
ecstasy, create new life, and the indifference 
wherewith she regards what will patiently 
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