REVOLT OF THE BEES. 30 "On observing that the instinct of those little animals had surpassed the intelligence of man, I said within myself: 'Happy were it for the societies of the human race, did they possess the wisdom of those of bees!' and I began to form wishes in behalf of my country." St. Pierre. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1826. 334. It is related in Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology, that the bees in their excursions, "furnish themselves with three different materials, the nectar of flowers from which they elaborate honey and wax; the pollen or fertilizing dust of the anthers, of which they make what is called bee-bread, serving as food both to old and young, &c."—Vol. ii. p. 176. "The Society of a hive of bees, besides the young brood, consists of one female or queen; several hundreds of males or drones; and many thousand workers.”—Vol. ii. p. 125. THE REVOLT OF THE BEES. CHAPTER I. "As bees In the spring time, when the sun with Taurus rides, The suburb of their straw-built citadel, New rubb'd with balm, expatiate and confer AT the distance of five miles to the south-west of Edinburgh rise the Pentland Hills: they are in height about two thousand feet, and form two ridges running parallel with each other, divided by a beautiful ravine, with a burn coursing its way through the In this sequestered retreat Allan Ramsay laid the scene of the Gentle Shepherd. In a part of the valley where there is a bend and the space between the hills widens, a monument has been erected centre. B |