Charles Butler

“How they Agree; how temp'ratly they Feed;
How curiously they Build; how chastly Breed;
How seriously their Bus'ness they intend;
How stoutly they their Common-good defend;
How timely their Provisions are provided;
How orderly their Labors are divided;
What Vertues patterns, and what grounds of Art;
What Pleasures, and what Profits they impart;
When these, with all those other things I mind
Which in this Book, concerning Bees, I finde:
Me thinkes, there is not half that worth in Mee,
Which I have apprehended in a Bee.
And that the Pismere, and these Hony-flies,
Instruct us better to Philosophize,
Than all those tedious Volumes, which, as yet,
Are least unto us by meere Humane-wit.
For, whereas those but only Rules doe give;
These by Examples teach how to live.”
― Charles Butler, The Feminine Monarchie