USE AND ABUSE. 325 



wings into the lire, and it became necessary to put wire- 

 gauze over the top of the chimney also. (686). 



618. As we liave seen thousands of bees destroyed in 

 such places, thousands more hopelessly struggling in the 

 deluding sweets, and yet increasing thousands, all unmind- 

 ful of their danger, blindly hovering over and alighting on 

 them, how often have they reminded us of the infatuation 

 of those who abandon themselves to the intoxicating cup ! 

 Even although such persons see the miserable victims of 

 this degrading vice falling all around them into premature 

 graves, they still press madly on, trampling, as it were, 

 over their dead bodies, that they too may sink into the 

 same abyss, and their sun also go down in hopeless 

 gloom. 



The avaricious bee that, despising the slow process of 

 extracting nectar from "every opening flower," plunges 

 recklessly into the tempting sweets, has ample time to be- 

 wail her folly. Even if she does not forfeit her life, she 

 returns home with a woe-begone look, and sorrowful note, 

 in marked contrast with the bright hues and merry sounds 

 with which her industrious fellows come back from their 

 happy rovings amid ' ' budding honey-flowers and sweetly- 

 breathing fields." 



