The Life of the Bee 
The prosperity of the humble-bees never 
exceeds a certain limit, their laws are ill- 
defined and ill-obeyed, primitive cannibal- 
ism and infanticide reappear at intervals, 
the architecture is shapeless and entails 
much waste of material ; but the cardinal 
difference between the two cities is that 
the one is permanent, and the other 
ephemeral. For, indeed, that of the hum- 
ble-bee will perish in the autumn ; its 
three or four hundred inhabitants will 
die, leaving no trace of their passage or 
their endeavours ; and but a single female 
will survive, who, the next spring, in the 
same solitude and poverty as her mother 
before her, will recommence the same use- 
less work. The idea, however, has now 
grown aware of its strength. Among the 
humble-bees it goes no further than we 
have stated, but, faithful to its habits and 
pursuing its usual routine, it will im- 
mediately undergo a sort of unwearying 
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