BRITISH BEES. 
2 
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, 
Obedience : for so work the honey bees ; 
Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach 
The act of order to a peopled kingdom. 
They have a king, and officers of sorts : 
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home; 
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad ; 
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, 
Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds ; 
Which pillage they, -with merry march, bring home 
To the tent-royal of their emperor : 
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 
The singing masons building roofs of gold ; 
The civil citizens kneading up the honey; 
The poor mechanick porters crowding in 
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate; 
The sad-ey’d justice, with his surly hum, 
Delivering o’er to executors pale 
The lazy yawning drone .”—Henry V., 1, 2. 
Nothing escaped the wonderful vision of this “ myriad - 
minded” man, and its pertinent application. 
This description, although certainly not technically 
accurate, is a superb broad sketch, and shows how well 
he was acquainted with the natural history and habits of 
the domestic bee. 
The curiosity bees have attracted from time imme¬ 
morial, and the wonders of their economy elicited by the 
observation and study of modern investigators, is but a 
grateful return for the benefits derived to man from 
their persevering assiduity and skill. It is the just 
homage of reason to perfect instinct running closely 
parallel to its own wonderful attributes. Indeed, so 
complex are many of the operations of this instinct, as 
to have induced the surmise of a positive affinity to 
reason, instead of its being a mere analogy, working 
blindly and without reflection. The felicity of the adap- 
