The Life of the Bee | Page 4

OF THE MALES
VIII. THE PROGRESS OF THE RACE
APPENDIX

I
ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE HIVE

[1]
IT is not my intention to write a treatise on apiculture, or on practical
bee-keeping. Excellent works of the kind abound in all civilised
countries, and it were useless to attempt another. France has those of
Dadant, Georges de Layens and Bonnier, Bertrand, Hamet, Weber,
Clement, the Abbe Collin, etc. English-speaking countries have
Langstroth, Bevan, Cook, Cheshire, Cowan, Root, etc. Germany has
Dzierzon, Van Berlespoch, Pollmann, Vogel, and many others.
Nor is this book to be a scientific monograph on Apis Mellifica,
Ligustica, Fasciata, Dorsata, etc., or a collection of new observations
and studies. I shall say scarcely anything that those will not know who
are somewhat familiar with bees. The notes and experiments I have
made during my twenty years of beekeeping I shall reserve for a more
technical work; for their interest is necessarily of a special and limited
nature, and I am anxious not to over-burden this essay. I wish to speak
of the bees very simply, as one speaks of a subject one knows and loves
to those who know it not. I do not intend to adorn the truth, or merit the
just reproach Reaumur addressed to his predecessors in the study of our
honey-flies, whom he accused of substituting for the marvellous reality
marvels that were imaginary and merely plausible. The fact that the
hive contains so much that is wonderful does not warrant our seeking to
add to its wonders. Besides, I myself have now for a long time ceased
to look for anything more beautiful in this world, or more interesting,
than the truth; or at least than the effort one is able to make towards the
truth. I shall state nothing, therefore, that I have not verified myself, or
that is not so fully accepted in the text-books as to render further

verification superfluous. My facts shall be as accurate as though they
appeared in a practical manual or scientific monograph, but I shall
relate them in a somewhat livelier fashion than such works would allow,
shall group them more harmoniously together, and blend them with
freer and more mature reflections. The reader of this book will not learn
therefrom how to manage a hive; but he will know more or less all that
can with any certainty be known of the curious, profound, and intimate
side of its inhabitants. Nor will this be at the cost of what still remains
to be learned. I shall pass over in silence the hoary traditions that, in the
country and many a book, still constitute the legend of the hive.
Whenever there be doubt, disagreement, hypothesis, when I arrive at
the unknown, I shall declare it loyally; you will find that we often shall
halt before the unknown. Beyond the appreciable facts of their life we
know but little of the bees. And the closer our acquaintance becomes,
the nearer is our ignorance brought to us of the depths of their real
existence; but such ignorance is better than the other kind, which is
unconscious, and satisfied.
Does an analogous work on the bee exist? I believe I have read almost
all that has been written on bees; but of kindred matter I know only
Michelet's chapter at the end of his book "The Insect," and Ludwig
Buchner's essay in his "Mind in Animals." Michelet merely hovers on
the fringe of his subject; Buchner's treatise is comprehensive enough,
but contains so many hazardous statements, so much long-discarded
gossip and hearsay, that I suspect him of never having left his library,
never having set forth himself to question his heroines, or opened one
of the many hundreds of rustling, wing-lit hives which we must profane
before our instinct can be attuned to their secret, before we can perceive
the spirit and atmosphere, perfume and mystery, of these virgin
daughters of toil. The book smells not of the bee, or its honey; and has
the defects of many a learned work, whose conclusions often are
preconceived, and whose scientific attainment is composed of a vast
array of doubtful anecdotes collected on every side. But in this essay of
mine we rarely shall meet each other; for our starting-point, our aim,
and our point of view are all very different.
[2]
The bibliography of the bee (we will begin with the books so as to get
rid of them as soon as we can and go to the source of the books) is very

extensive. From the beginning this strange little creature, that lived in a
society under complicated laws and executed prodigious labours in the
darkness, attracted the notice of men. Aristotle, Cato, Varro, Pliny,
Columella, Palladius all studied the bees; to say nothing of
Aristomachus, who,