288 
AN EXTENSIVE HOUSEHOLD. 
plete indolence. Yonder ladies, who do not jest, and who have stings 
of which the males are deprived, might look upon their idleness sourly, 
and stir them up with dagger-thrusts. So they have conceived the idea 
of working without work; they have the air of doing something,—a 
small part of the domestic labour, cleaning, and sweeping. If any one 
dies, the ceremony of interment provides them with a pretence; with 
the effort of carrying a slight weight they sweat and groan, and several 
put their shoulders together. In a word, they are very ridiculous. 
And I am confident that their terrible companions laugh at them. 
Theirs truly is an onerous undertaking. Twenty or thirty thousand 
mouths to feed, is a very extensive household. If they were only gifted 
with the prudent activity of bees, their community would perish of 
famine. What they need is a violent, furious, murderous rapidity,—all 
the appearances of an immense gluttony,—all the love and devotion 
which Sparta had for the art of thieving. But the secret of their 
power, which is plainly discernible in them if we observe them but a 
moment, is their magnificent insolence, their superb contempt for all 
other beings, and their firm conviction that the whole world is their 
inheritance. If we consider, it is true, their wonderful energy, com¬ 
pared with which lions and tigers are mere races of sheep,—and their 
prodigious yearly effort of improvisation,—and, finally, their absolute 
devotion to the public welfare,—we shall not find in all nature creatures 
relatively of greater power, nor which possess a clearer right to value 
themselves highly. 
Our modern minds, however, find a difficulty in admiring _the 
violence of the antique virtues. Their boundless love of the common¬ 
wealth is pushed to an almost criminal excess. Who has not marked 
with how ferocious an ardour they hunt the bees ! Yet certain species 
of wasps can make honey; but only in fine climates, which, know¬ 
ing no winter, allow the wasps an interval of peaceful labour. Here 
the case is different. Their life, cut short in six months, compels them 
to resort to measures of cruel simplicity. Honey is needed for their 
children. Thereupon they attack the bee, and take it prisoner; with 
their pliable body, whose waist is a mere thread, they so curve the 
extremity as to stab the prisoner underneath with their deadly sting; 
