The Life of the Bee 
work, begun in the dazzling sunshine, 
receives its crown in the darkness. To 
be comprehensive, one should mention 
also the somewhat subsequent works and 
investigations of Charles Bonnet and 
Schirach (who solved the enigma of the 
royal egg); but I will keep to the broad 
lines, and pass at once to Francois Huber, 
the master and classic of contemporary 
apiarian science. 
Huber was born in Geneva in 1750, 
and fell blind in his earliest youth. The 
experiments of .Réaumur interested him; 
he sought to verify them, and soon be- 
coming passionately absorbed in these 
researches, eventually, with the assist- 
ance of an intelligent and faithful servant, 
Francois Burnens, devoted his entire life 
to the study of the bee. In the annals 
of human suffering and human triumph 
there is nothing more touching, no lesson 
more admirable, than the story of this 
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