The Life of the Bee 
irresistible folly, a mechanical impulse, a 
law of the species, a decree of nature, or 
to the force that for all creatures lies hid- 
den in the revolution of time. It is our 
habit, in the case of the bees no less than 
our own, to regard as fatality all that we 
do not as yet understand. But now that 
the hive has surrendered two or three of 
its material secrets, we have discovered 
that this exodus is neither instinctive nor 
inevitable. It is not a blind emigration, 
but apparently the well-considered sacrifice 
of the present generation in favour of the 
generation to come. The bee-keeper has 
only to destroy in their cells the young 
queens that still are inert, and, at the same 
time, if nymphs and larve abound, to 
enlarge the store-houses and dormitories 
of the nation, for this unprofitable tumult 
instantaneously to subside, for work to 
be at once resumed, and the flowers re- 
visited; while the old queen, who now is 
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