The Life of the Bee 
attacking the rest of the surface and the 
opposite side of the wall; each one obey- 
ing the general law of interrupted and 
successive labour, as though it were an 
inherent principle of the hive that the 
pride of toil should be distributed, and 
every achievement be anonymous and 
common to all, that it might thereby 
become more fraternal. 
[53 ] 
The outline of the nascent comb may 
soon be divined. In form it will still be 
lenticular, for the little prismatic tubes 
that compose it are unequal in length, and 
diminish in proportion as they recede from 
the centre to the extremities. In thick- 
ness and appearance at present it more or 
less resembles a human tongue whose 
sides might be formed of hexagonal cells, 
contiguous, and placed back to back. 
The first cells having been built, the 
186 
