Should we be more successful than they in preserving our presence of mind if some strange power were at every step to ensnare our reason?  Let us not be too hasty in condemning the bees for the folly whereof we are the authors, or in deriding their intellect, which is as poorly equipped to foil our artifices as our own would be to foil those of some superior creature unknown to us to-day, but on that account not impossible.  None such being known at present, we conclude that we stand on the topmost pinnacle of life on this earth; but this belief, after all, is by no means infallible.  I am not assuming that when our actions are unreasonable, or contemptible, we merely fall into the snares that such a creature has laid; though it is not inconceivable that this should one day be proved true.  On the other hand, it cannot be wise to deny intelligence to the bee because it has not yet succeeded in distinguishing us from the great ape or the bear.  It is certain that there are, in us and about us, influences and powers no less dissimilar whose distinction escapes us as readily.

And finally, to end this apology, wherein I seem somewhat to have fallen into the error I laid to Sir John Lubbock’s charge, does not the capacity for folly so great in itself argue intelligence?  For thus it is ever in the uncertain domain of the intellect, apparently the most vacillating and precarious condition of matter.  The same light that falls on the intellect falls also on passion, whereof none can tell whether it be the smoke of the flame or the wick.  In the case above it has not been mere animal desire to gorge themselves with honey that has urged on the bees.  They could do this at their leisure in the store-rooms at home.  Watch them in an analogous circumstance; follow them; you will see that, as soon as their sac is filled, they will return to the hive and add their spoil to the general store; and visit the marvellous vintage, and leave it, perhaps thirty times in an hour.  Their admirable labours, therefore, are inspired by a single desire:  zeal to bring as much wealth as they can to the home of their sisters, which is also the home of the future.  When we discover a cause as disinterested for the follies of men, we are apt to call them by another name.

[44]

However, the whole truth must be told.  In the midst of the marvels of their industry, their policy, their sacrifice, one thing exists that must always check and weaken our admiration; and this is the indifference with which they regard the misfortunes or death of their comrades.  There is a strange duality in the character of the bee.  In the heart of the hive all help and love each other.  They are as united as the good thoughts that dwell in the same soul.  Wound one of them, and a thousand will sacrifice themselves to avenge its injury.  But outside the hive they no longer recognise each other.  Mutilate them, crush them,—­or rather, do nothing of the kind; it would be a useless cruelty,