EXCEPT THE STORY OF ARISTÆUS. Ethereal sweets shall next my Muse engage, And this, Maecenas, claims your patronage. Of little creatures' wondrous acts I treat, The ranks and mighty leaders of their state, Their laws, employments, and their wars relate. A trifling theme provokes my humble lays. Trifling the theme, not so the poet's praise, If great Apollo and the tuneful Nine First, for your bees a proper station find, _10 That's fenced about, and sheltered from the wind; For winds divert them in their flight, and drive The swarms, when loaden homeward, from their hive. Nor sheep, nor goats, must pasture near their stores, To trample underfoot the springing flowers; Nor frisking heifers bound about the place, To spurn the dew-drops off, and bruise the rising grass; Nor must the lizard's painted brood appear, Nor wood-pecks, nor the swallow, harbour near. They waste the swarms, and, as they fly along, _20 Convey the tender morsels to their young. Let purling streams, and fountains edged with moss, And shallow rills run trickling through the grass; Let branching olives o'er the fountain grow; Or palms shoot up, and shade the streams below; That when the youth, led by their princes, shun The crowded hive and sport it in the sun, Refreshing springs may tempt them from the heat, And shady coverts yield a cool retreat. Whether the neighbouring water stands or runs, _30 Lay twigs across and bridge it o'er with stones That if rough storms, or sudden blasts of wind, Should dip or scatter those that lag behind, Here they may settle on the friendly stone, And dry their reeking pinions at the sun. Plant all the flowery banks with lavender, With store of savory scent the fragrant air; Let running betony the field o'erspread, And fountains soak the violet's dewy bed. Though barks or plaited willows make your hive, _40 A narrow inlet to their cells contrive; For colds congeal and freeze the liquors up, And, melted down with heat, the waxen buildings drop. The bees, of both extremes alike afraid, Their wax around the whistling crannies spread, And suck out clammy dews from herbs and flowers, To smear the chinks, and plaster up the pores; For this they hoard up glue, whose clinging drops, Like pitch or bird-lime, hang in stringy ropes. They oft, 'tis said, in dark retirements dwell, _50 And work in subterraneous caves their cell; At other times the industrious insects live In hollow rocks, or make a tree their hive. Point all their chinky lodgings round with mud, And leaves must thinly on your work be strow'd; But let no baleful yew-tree flourish near, Nor rotten marshes send out steams of mire; Nor burning crabs grow red, and crackle in the fire: Nor neighbouring caves return the dying sound, Nor echoing rocks the doubled voice rebound. _60 Things thus prepared---- When the under-world is seized with cold and night,