The Life of the Bee 
more closely examine the fashion in which 
these “ten thousand individuals” avoid 
hurting each other, and end by giving as- 
sistance? And further, is this not the 
history of ourselves; and does not all 
that the angry old naturalist says apply 
equally to every one of our human socie- 
ties? And yet once again: if the bee is 
indeed to be credited with none of the 
feelings or ideas that we have ascribed to 
it, shall we not very willingly shift the 
ground of our wonder? If we must not 
admire the bee, we will then admire 
nature; the moment must always come 
when admiration can be no longer denied 
us, nor shall there be loss to us through 
our having retreated, or waited. 
[31] 
However these things may be, and with- 
out abandoning this conjecture of ours, that 
at least has the advantage of connecting 
096 
