The Life of the Bee 
doubtful anecdotes collected on every 
side. But in this essay of mine we rarely 
shall meet each other; for our starting- 
point, our aim, and our point of view 
are all very different. 
[2] 
The bibliography of the bee (we will 
begin with the books so as to get rid 
of them as soon as we can and go to 
the source of the books) is very exten- 
sive. From the beginning this strange 
little creature, that lived in a society 
under complicated laws and executed 
prodigious labours in the darkness, at- 
tracted the notice of men. Aristotle, 
Cato, Varro, Pliny, Columella, Palladius 
all studied the bees; to say nothing of 
Aristomachus, who, according to Cicero, 
watched them for fifty-eight years, and of 
Phyliscus, whose writings are lost. But 
these dealt rather with the legend of the 
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