THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE HIVE 75 



the sexes, communal or individual ownership in 

 property, due qualification for parenthood, the 

 hegemony of might or right — all seem to have 

 been happily settled long ago in this remarkable 

 bee-commonwealth. In itself a prosperous, well- 

 conducted hive appears to offer a living example, 

 a perfect object-lesson of what Socialism, carried 

 out to its last and sternest conclusions, must mean 

 to human and apiarian communities alike. Here is 

 a number of individuals — counting anything from 

 ten thousand to fifty or sixty thousand, according 

 to their condition and the time of year — living 

 heathily and comfortably in the space of a few 

 cubic feet. The principle, all for the greatest 

 good of the greatest number, is elevated into a 

 prime maxim, to which every one must bow. The 

 fiction of royalty is maintained in harmony with 

 the perfect republican spirit. The females are 

 supreme in everything, the males in nothing. 

 Growth of population is accelerated or retarded, 

 according to estimations of the immediate or 

 future supply of food. The proportion of the 

 sexes is varied at will. The rule, that those who 

 cannot work must not live, is applied with relent- 

 less consistency. All the garnered wealth of the 

 State is held in common for the common good. 

 When the settlement becomes too populous, and 

 the boundaries cannot be extended, a large part 

 of its inhabitants are forced to emigrate, taking 

 with them only so much of the state property as 



