Identifier: cu31924050752975 (find matches)
Title: The life of the bee
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Maeterlinck, Maurice, 1862-1949 Sutro, Alfred, 1863-1933
Subjects: Bees
Publisher: London : George Allen & Co. Ltd.
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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aintain in their sphere an unchanging warmth, equalto that of a day in spring. This secret spring comes from THE MASSACRE OF THE MALES 195 the beautiful honey, itself but a ray of heat transformed, thatreturns now to its first condition. It circulates in the hivelike generous blood. The bees at the full cells present it totheir neighbours, who pass it on in their turn. Thus itgoes from hand to hand and from mouth to mouth, till itattain the extremity of the group in whose thousands ofhearts one destiny, one thought, is scattered and united. Itstands in lieu of the sun and the flowers till its elder brother,the veritable sun of the real, great spring, peering throughthe half-open door, glides in his first softened glances, whereinanemones and violets are coming to life again ; and gentlyawakens the workers, showing them that the sky once moreis blue in the world, and that the uninterrupted circle thatjoins death to life has turned and begun afresh. VIITHE PROGRESS OF THE RACE The Combs
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VIITHE PROGRESS OF THE RACE 99 BEFORE closing this book—as we have closed the hive onthe torpid silence of winter—I am anxious to meet theobjection invariably urged by those to whom we revealthe astounding industry and policy of the bees. Yes, they willsay, that is all very wonderful ; but then, it has never been other-wise. The bees have for thousands of years dwelt under remark-able laws, but during those thousands of years the laws havenot varied. For thousands of years they have constructed theirmarvellous combs, to which we can add nothing, from whichwe can take nothing ; combs that unite in equal perfectionthe science of the chemist, the geometrician, the architect,and the engineer ; but on the sarcophagi, on Egyptian stonesand papyri, we find drawings of combs that are identical inevery particular. Name a single fact that will show theleast progress, a single instance of their having contrivedsome new feature or modified their habitual routine, and wewill cheerfully yield,

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