On the Threshold of the Hive 
in her place, after dexterously obtaining 
the reluctant consent of a people who 
would be maddened at the mere suspicion 
of an inconceivable intervention. When 
he thinks fit, he will peacefully violate 
the secret of the sacred chambers, and the 
elaborate, tortuous policy of the palace. 
He will five or six times in succession de- 
prive the bees of the fruit of their labour, 
without harming them, without their be- 
coming discouraged or even impoverished. 
He proportions the store-houses and 
granaries of their dwellings to the harvest 
of flowers that the spring is spreading 
over the dip of the hills. He compels 
them to reduce the extravagant number 
of lovers who await the birth of the royal 
princesses. In a word he does with them 
what he will, he obtains what he will, pro- 
vided always that what he seeks be in ac- 
cordance with their laws and their virtues; 
for beyond all the desires of this strange 
2 17 
