So much knowledge, even with respect to a single genus, where the species are numerous, is not to be expected from one man : nor should the naturalist attempt, like the spider, to weave his web from materials obtained solely from within himself; but rather let him copy the industrious Bee, and draw genuine treasures from those flowers of science which have been reared by other hands; and, combining these with his own discoveries, let him endeavour to concentrate all into one harmonious system, with parts curiously formed, arranged, and adapted to each other, and to the whole, and calculated to preserve the genuine sweets of true wisdom pure and unsophisticated.

On entering Grantham from Stamford we pass through Welllane. Forty years ago (from 1838) a swarm of Bees settled on the sign-post of a little inn at this place; they were hived, and placed as the inn's sign, with this inscription :

"Stop, traveller, this wondrous sign explore,

And say, when you have viewed it o'er and o'er,
Now, Grantham, two great rarities are thine,

A lofty steeple, and a living sign."

Told to me by old Carrick, clothes cleaner to Christ Church, Oxon, Free Mason, and Odd Fellow, as a recollection of forty years ago.

W. C. C.

The Honey-bags steal from the Humble Bees,
And for night tapers, crop their waxen thighs,
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes.
SHAKSPEARE.

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii. Scene 1.

DEPRECATORY ADDRESS TO THE SWALLOW.

*Ατθι κόρα μελίθρεπτε, λάλον λάλος ἁρπάξασα
Νήλεος ἀπτῆσιν δαῖτα φέρεις τέκεσιν

Τύνδε λάλον λαλόεσσα, τὸν εὔπτερον ά πτερόεσσα

Where the Bee sucks, there suck I.

SHAKSPEARE. Tempest, Act V. Scene 1.

Pope Urban VIII. had for his bearing, azure, three Bees, or. A Frenchman, who regarded him as more attached to his nation than to the Spaniards, wrote this line:

CALLIS MELLA DABUNT, HISPANIS SPICULA FIGUNT.

To which the Spaniard answered:

SPICULA SI FIGANT EMORIENTUR APES.

The Pope was made to answer in an ingenious way, and in a manner perfectly consistent with his office of pastor to the church, CUNCTIS MELLA DABIT, SED NULLIS SPICULA FIGET, SPICULA REX ETENIM FICERE NESCIT APUM.

Louis XII. entered Geneva bearing a coat studded with a swarm of Bees, or; a King in the middle with this motto:

REX NON UTITUR ACULEO,

to show that he pardoned the rebellion of the Genevese.

GUILLIM'S HERALDRY.

xxxvi

PRELUDE OF MOTTOES.

The Commons, like an angry Hive of Bees,
That want their leader, scatter up and down,
And care not whom they sting.

SHAKSPEARE. 2 Henry VI. Act iii. Scene 2.

A DEAD BEE MAKETH NO HONEY.

HERBERT'S PROVERB.

EVERY BEE'S HONEY IS SWEET.

HERBERT'S PROVERB.

As God hath given them stings, let us adore
The awful emblem; nor in God's great world
Wish adders baneless; but by graver thought,
Gather sweet honey from the stinging Bees;
And adder's oil 'tis said will heal its wounds.

THE BAPTISTERY.

But for your words, they rob the Hybla Bees
And leave them honeyless.

Ant.

Bru.

Not stingless too.

O yes, and soundless too;

For you have stolen their buzzing, Antony,

And, very wisely, threat before you sting.

SHAKSPEARE. Julius Cæsar, Act v. Scene 1.

THE following Work is printed in its present enlarged form, as it seems not unlikely that it may prove acceptable to Bee-keepers of another class than that for which it was originally written. Simplicity of style and clearness of expression were mainly aimed at in the

B

two "Short and Simple Letters to Cottagers, from a Bee Preserver." I believed, and I have found on trial, that if any one sets about writing, after making up his mind to draw only from "the well of English, pure and undefiled," he will be able to give form to at least all the ideas which he could do by adopting a more bombastic style: one, tainted and defiled, I must call it, by an useless admixture of barbarisms and words of foreign fashion. I have therefore not at all altered the style of the Letters, which were intended for the Cottagers of England. English is no where spoken so purely or so forcibly as it is by the villagers in those counties which have no dialect of their own. All classes therefore cannot do better than try to speak and write as the poor speak. The poor have not the same temptations from foreign travel, the reading of ill-written books, and the senseless fashions of the times, to corrupt and debase their mother tongue. And a distinct language is one of the bad signs of a separation in thought and interest among those who should be bound up together as one great family, by the tie of blood and of country, to say nothing of that higher bond of union, in virtue of which we are all brethren. It is more than a sign.-It has contributed to bring