The Life of the Bee 
shall be fraternal, a little more certain, a 
little more happy. The spirit must ideally 
unite that which in the body is actually 
separate ; the individual must sacrifice him- 
self for the race, and substitute for visible 
things the things that cannot be seen. Need 
we wonder that the bees do not at the first 
glance realise what we have not yet disen- 
tangled, we who find ourselves at the privi- 
leged spot whence instinct radiates from all 
sides into our consciousness? And it is 
curious too, almost touching, to see how the 
new idea gropes its way, at first, in the dark- 
ness that enfolds all things that come to life 
on this earth. It emerges from matter, it is 
still quite material. It is cold, hunger, fear, 
transformed into something that as yet has 
no shape. It crawls vaguely around great 
dangers, around the long nights, the approach 
of winter, of an equivocal sleep which almost 
is death... . 
108 
The Xylocope are powerful bees which 
worm their nest in dry wood. Their life 
is solitary always. Towards the end of 
322 
