The Life of the Bee 
vidually prospering in the midst of a 
languishing state. It protects the hard- 
working slave in the powerful. city, while 
those who have no duties, whose associa- 
tion is only precarious, are abandoned to 
the nameless, formless enemies who dwell 
in the minutes of time, in the movements 
of the universe, and in the recesses of 
space. This is not the moment to dis- 
cuss the scheme of nature, or to ask 
ourselves whether it would be well for 
man to follow it; but it is certain that 
wherever the infinite mass allows us to 
seize the appearance of an idea, the ap- 
pearance takes this road whereof we ‘know 
not the end. Let it be enough that we 
note the persistent care with which nature 
preserves, and fixes. in the evolving race, 
all that has been won from the hostile 
inertia of matter. She records each happy 
effort, and contrives we know not what 
special and benevolent laws to counteract 
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