The Life of the Bee 
with it, inspired with the genius of the 
unanimous republic. One part of the people 
renounce their foraging duties to devote 
themselves to the work of justice. The 
great idle drones, asleep in unconscious 
groups on the melliferous walls, are rudely 
torn from their slumbers by an army of 
wrathful virgins. They wake, in pious 
wonder; they cannot believe their eyes; 
and their astonishment struggles through 
their sloth as a moonbeam through marshy 
water. They stare amazedly round them, 
convinced that they must be victims of some 
mistake; and the mother-idea of their life 
being first to assert itself in their dull brain, 
they take a step towards the vats of honey 
to seek comfort there. But ended for them 
are the days of May honey, the wine-flower 
of lime-trees and fragrant ambrosia of thyme 
and sage, of marjoram and white clover. 
Where the path once lay open to the kindly, 
abundant reservoirs, that so invitingly offered 
their waxen and sugary mouths, there stands 
now a burning-bush all alive with poisonous, 
bristling stings. The atmosphere of the 
city is changed; in lieu of the friendly 
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