The Fable of the Bees

A spacious hive well stock’d with bees, That liv’d in luxury and ease; And yet as fam’d for laws and arms, As yielding large and early swarms; Was counted the great nursery Of sciences and industry. No bees had better government, More fickleness, or less content: They were not slaves to tyranny. Nor rul’d by wild democracy; But kings, that could not wrong, because Their power was circumscrib’d by laws.

These insects liv’d like men, and all Our actions they performed in small: They did whatever’s done in town, And what belongs to sword or gown: Though th’ artful works, by nimble slight Of minute limbs, ’scap’d human sight; Yet we’ve no engines, labourers, Ships, castles, arms, artificers, Craft, science, shop, or instrument, But they had an equivalent: Which, since their language is unknown, Must be call’d, as we do our own. As grant, that among other things, They wanted dice, yet they had kings; And those had guards; from whence we may Justly conclude, they had some play; Unless a regiment be shown Of soldiers, that make use of none.