Throng to th' imperial tent, their king surround, Fierce clash the clustering orbs, air rings around, While boundless souls their little bosom swell, Fiercely they fight, unknowing how to yield, THE ECONOMY AND POLITY OF THE BEES. They, they alone a common city share Love their known household, aid their country's cause, Securely live beneath establish'd laws; Prescient of winter, hoard the rifled spring, And summer's tribute to the treasury bring. Some, by fixt league, forsake awhile their home, And far and wide, to feed the nation, roam; Form'd of thick gum and pale Narcissus' tear, Some, in the hive, their new foundations rear ; These, train'd to work, the clinging wax suspend, These to the young, the nation's hope, attend, These stow pure honey, and unwearied swell With liquid nectar each o'erflowing cell. These, at the gate, their station'd vigils keep, Mark where the clouds collect, the tempests sweep, Unload the labourer, or, embattled drive The drone, dull sluggard, from the busy hive: A nation toils, the work unwearied glows, And, redolent of thyme, the honey flows. To each his part; age claims th' entrusted care Droop with the thyme that loads their weary'd flight. Where'er a willow waves, or arbute grows, Or casia scents the gale, or crocus glows, Flow'r, shrub, and grove, for them their sweets renew. Alike they labour, and alike repose: Forth from their gates each morn the nation flows; And when pale twilight, from the rifled mead, Poiz'd, through the air on even pinions float. But (since dread ills both bees and man molest) If e'er disease the languid hive infest, SAXON ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. From the Anglo-Saxons we derive the names of the most ancient officers among us; of the greater part of the divisions of the kingdom, and of almost all our towns and villages. From them also we derive our language; of which the structure, and a majority of its words, much greater than those who have not thought on the sub |