The Life of the Bee 
[ 62 } 
And whom does the queen-bee obey? 
She is ruled by nourishment given her ; 
for she does not take her own food, but 
is fed like a child by the very workers 
whom her fecundity harasses. And the 
food these workers deal out is nicely pro- 
portioned to the abundance of flowers, to 
the spoil brought back by those who 
visit the calyces. Here, then, as every- 
where else in the world, one part of the 
circle is wrapped in darkness; here, as 
everywhere, it is from without, from an 
unknown power, that the supreme order 
issues; and the bees, like ourselves, obey 
the nameless lord of the wheel that inces~ 
santly turns on itself, and crushes the 
wills that have set it in motion. 
Some little time back, I conducted a 
friend to one of my hives of glass, and 
showed him the movements of this wheel, 
218 
