From purple violets and the teile they bring
Their gather'd sweets, and rifle all the spring.
All work together, all together reft.
The morning ftill renews their labours past;
Then all rush out, their different tasks pursue,
Sit on the bloom, and fuck the ripening dew;
Again when evening warns them to their home,
With weary wings, and heavy thighs they come,
And crowd about the chink, and mix a drowsy hum.
Into their cells at length they gently creep,
There all the night their peaceful ftation keep,
Wrapt up in filence, and diffolv'd in sleep.
None range abroad when winds and storms are nigh,
Nor truft their bodies to a faithless sky,
But make small journeys, with a careful wing,
And fly to water at a neighbouring spring;
And, left their airy bodies fhould be caft
In restlefs whirls, the sport of every blaft,
They carry ftones to poise them in their flight,
As ballaft keeps th' unfteady veffel right.
But of all cuftoms that the bees can boast,
'Tis this may challenge admiration moft;
That none will Hymen's fofter joys approve,
Nor waste their spirits in luxurious love,
But all a long virginity maintain,
And bring forth young without a mother's pain.
From herbs and flowers they pick each tender bee,
And cull from plants a buzzing progeny ;
From these they choose out fubjects, and create
A little monarch of the rising state;
Then build wax kingdoms for the infant prince,
And form a palace for his refidence.
But often in their journeys, as they fly,
On flints they tear their filken wings, or fie
Groveling beneath their flowery load, and die.
Thus love of honey can an infect fire,
And in a fly fuch generous thoughts infpire.
Yet by repeopling their decaying ftate,
Though feven fhort springs conclude their vital date,
Their ancient ftocks eternally remain,
And in an endless race their children's children reign.
No proftrate vaffal of the Eaft can more
With flavish fear his mighty Prince adore;
His life unites them all; but when he dies,
All in loud tumults and distractions rise;
They wafte their honey, and their combs deface,
And wild confufion reigns in every place.
Him all admire, all the great guardian own,
And crowd about his courts, and buzz about his throne.
Oft on their backs their weary prince they bear,
Oft in his caufe embattled in the air,
Purfue a glorious death, in wounds and war.
Some from fuch inftances as thefe have taught, "The bees extract is heavenly; for they thought "The univerfe alive; and that a foul,
"Diffus'd throughout the matter of the whole, "To all the vaft unbounded frame was given, "And ran through earth, and air, and fea, and all "the deep of heaven;
"That this firft kindled life in man and beast, "Life that again flows into this at last,
"That no compounded animal could die,
"But when diffolv'd, the spirit mounted high,
"Dwelt in a ftar, and fettled in the sky."
Whene'er their balmy sweets you mean to seize, And take the liquid labours of the bees,
Spurt draughts of water from your mouth, and drive
A loathfome cloud of fmoke amidft their hive.
Twice in the year their flowery toils begin,
And twice they fetch their dewy harvest in;
Once when the lovely Pleiades arise,
And add fresh luftre to the fummer skies:
And once when haftening from the watery fign
They quit their station, and forbear to fhine.
The bees are prone to rage, and often found
To perish for revenge, and die upon the wound;
Their venom'd fting produces aking pains,
And swells the flesh, and fhoots among the veins.
When first a cold hard winter's ftorms arrive,
And threaten death or famine to their hive,
If now their finking state and low affairs
Can move your pity, and provoke your cares,
Fresh burning thyme before their cells convey,
And cut their dry and husky wax away;
For often lizards feize the luscious fpoils,
Or drones that riot on another's toils:
Oft broods of moths infeft the hungry swarms,
And oft the furious wafp their hive alarms,
With louder hums, and with unequal arms;
Qr else the spider at the entrance fets
Her fnares, and fpins her bowels into nets.
When fickness reigns (for they as well as we
Feel all th' effects of frail mortality)
By certain marks the new disease is seen,
Their colour changes, and their looks are thin,
Their funeral rites are form'd, and every bee
With grief attends the fad folemnity;
The few difeas'd furvivors hang before
Their fickly cells, and droop about the door,
Or flowly in their hives their limbs unfold,
Shrunk up with hunger, and benumb'd with cold;
In drawling hums the feeble infects grieve,
And doleful buzzes echo through the hive,
Like winds that foftly murmur through the trees,
Like flames pent up, or like retiring seas.
Now lay fresh honey near their empty rooms,
In troughs of hollow reeds, whilft frying gums
Caft round a fragrant mist of spicy fumes.
Thus kindly tempt the famish'd fwarm to eat,
And gently reconcile them to their meat.
Mix juice of galls, and wine, that grow in time
Condens'd by fire, and thicken to a flime;
To thefe dry'd rofes, thyme, and centaury join,
And raifins ripen'd on the Pfythian vine.
Befides there grows a flower in marshy ground,
Its name Amellus, easy to be found;
A mighty spring works in its root, and cleaves
The fprouting ftalk, and fhews itself in leaves;
The flower itself is of a golden hue,
The leaves inclining to a darker blue;
The leaves fhoot thick about the flower, and
Into a bush, and shade the turf below:
The plant in holy garlands often twines
The altars' posts, and beautifies the shrines;
Its tafte is fharp, in vales new-fhorn it grows,
Where Mella's ftream in watry mazes flows.
Take plenty of its roots, and boil them well
In wine, and heap them up before the cell.
But if the whole stock fail, and none furvive;
To raise new people, and recruit the hive,
I'll here the great experiment declare,
That spread th' Arcadian fhepherd's name so far. How bees from blood of flaughter'd bulls have fled, And fwarms amidst the red corruption bred.
For where th' Egyptians yearly fee their bounds
Refresh'd with floods, and fail about their grounds,
Where Perfia borders, and the rolling Nile
Drives swiftly down the fwarthy Indians' foil,
Till into feven it multiplies its ftream,
And fattens Egypt with a fruitful flime:
In this last practice all their hope remains,
And long experience justifies their pains.
Firft then a close contracted space of ground,
With straiten'd walls and low-built roof they found;
A narrow fhelving light is next affign'd
To all the quarters, one to every wind;
Through these the glancing rays obliquely pierce : Hither they lead a bull that's young and fierce, When two-years growth of horn he proudly fhows; And shakes the comely terrors of his brows:
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