6

not confined to the mystical schools. Even Aquinas who accepts and expounds in the 'Summa' (I. q. 12, a. 5 the doctrine of the lumen gloriæ, is considerably in debted to Plotinus in several other particulars; though he cites him inaccurately, and does not seem to have known him at first hand. In a remarkable passage which afterwards influenced one of the finest rhapsodies of Ruysbroeck, he has actually lifted' the most cele brated phrase in the Sixth Ennead, and adapted it to the distinctively Christian and non-Platonic view of divine union, as a 'mutual act' of God and the soul 'In a wonderful and unspeakable manner,' says S Thomas of the soul in this place, 'she both seizes and i seized upon, devours and is herself devoured, embrace and is violently embraced; and by the knot of love sh unites herself with God, and is with Him as the Alon with the Alone.'

It is in a later and less orthodox son of St Dominic the formidable and adventurous thinker Eckhart, tha the influence of Plotinus on the medieval mind is bes seen, passing through him to Suso, Tauler, Ruysbroeck and other mystics of the 14th century. Eckhart's philo sophy still provides one of the most suggestive glosse upon the Enneads. He made that distinction betwee the Absolute Godhead and God, which was almost in evitable for a Christian thinker trying to find a place in theology for the Neoplatonic One. The Godhead, he says, is a non-God, a non-Spirit, a non-person, a non image, a sheer pure One.' The Son, in whom the Father becomes conscious of Himself,' combines the attributes of the Logos-Christ with those of the Nous. In Him are the archetypes of all created things. There is thus an emanation from the Godhead, through the Son, into creation. The soul's destiny is exactly that conceived by Plotinus; it must ascend to the spiritual world, and through it to its origin, the One, 'flowing back into the bottom of the bottomless fountain from which it flowed forth.' In Tauler and Suso, and especially in the great Flemish contemplative, Ruysbroeck, these ideas-though considerably modified by their inferior speculative ability and more ardent spirit of Christian devotion—are still strongly felt; and, since their works and those of their disciples nourished many succeeding generations of

ontemplatives, through them the mystical side of the Veoplatonic tradition continued to bear fruit in the uman soul. Yet the very closeness with which they ten follow those parts of the Neoplatonic doctrine hich appeal to them, makes it possible for us to measure e distance which separates their minds, their tone and mper, from that of Plotinus and his school. The calm, e austerity of thought, the emphasis on beauty, the ear cool light of the Intelligible World have departed. hese are men of the Middle Age. Their work is full of assionate effort; it is centred on the ideas of sacrifice and pain. Their religion is coloured by the sharp Chrisan consciousness of sin, and by the difficulty-never Juarely faced-of reconciling devotion to a personal edeemer with the mystical passion for the Absolute. hat the philosophy of the Enneads was able to enter a orld so remote from its spirit, and come to terms with attitude of mind in many respects opposed to that of creator, is an oblique proof of the authenticity of its aim to interpret the spiritual experiences of man.

EVELYN UNDERHILL.

Vol. 231.-No. 459.

2 K

Art. 14.-MODERN BEE-KEEPING.

1. A Modern Bee-Farm. By S. Simmins. 2nd ed. The Author, 1914.

2. The British Bee-keeper's Guide-Book.

By T. W. Cowan. 22nd ed. British Bee Journal Office, 1915. 3. The Practical Bee-Guide. By J. G. Digges. 2nd ed. Irish Bee Journal Office, 1910.

4. The Life of the Bee. By M. Maeterlinck. Allen, 1906. 5. The Lore of the Honey Bee. By Tickner Edwardes 3rd ed. Methuen, 1911.

6. Bee-keeping Simplified; and Bee-keeping in War-time By W. Herrod-Hempsall. Simpkin, 1915, 1918. And other works.

BRITAIN was called 'The Isle of Honey' by old Welsh bards, but it has been estimated that the amount o honey now made is, owing to lack of bees, only one tenth of what it might be. In 1914 we imported honey to the value of 37,6627. In 1915 the figures were 92,6791. and in 1916, 187,2927. For the month of June, 1914, alone the figures were 49021. ; for the same month in 1916 they were 35,8877. In August, 1916, they rose to 54,7401. For 1917 they were 825,7371., and for 1918 no less than 2,702,7347.

But these figures, astonishing as they are, are nothing to what might be attained at home if bees and bee keepers were available. As much as 3s. 6d. a pound has been asked for good English section honey. This is an abnormal price, but, if we take 2s. a pound as the average price of 'run' honey, probably four million pounds' worth could be harvested in a single season. There is hardly any limit to the quantity of honey that can be gathered by a single hive, if modern scientific methods are applied to it. Last year we heard of 200 lbs. from one hive, and 300 lbs. from another. In 1901 Mr J. L. Gandy obtained an average of 407 lbs. per hive from 75 hives. His annua profits for six years were 800 per cent. Mr S. Simmins records 50 lbs. in seven days from one hive. A hive of Cyprian bees has been credited with 1000 lbs. in one season. Yet in face of these facts the straw skep stil has its votaries!

It is commonly asserted in handbooks that swarms

in their first season must not be expected to gather more than enough for their own needs. In 1916 the writer obtained a large swarm on June 19, and fed it for a fortnight with sugar syrup, with the result that it not only filled ten brood-frames with comb and brood, but yielded forty-two perfect pound sections as well. This illustrates the value of artificial feeding, which is one of the main secrets of successful apiculture.

In America large bee-farms are the rule; with us they are the exception. But any one who has zeal, a little leisure, and a love of bees, may add something to his income and much to his pleasure by keeping two or three hives. Bee-keeping is an ideal hobby for wounded soldiers, ministers of religion, brain-workers of all kinds, and boys with a taste for natural history. Many ladies handle bees fearlessly and well. Day-schools have taken up bee-keeping with success; and we see no reason why some of the great public schools should not encourage it. There are always some keen entomologists among their boys; and in. most cases some corner of the grounds, where cricket balls do not intrude, could be spared for a dozen hives or more. During the holidays a local expert, or perhaps one of the staff of servants, could be put in charge of them. Many boys acquire at school a remarkably thorough knowledge of entomology or ornihology, but we have never yet met a public schoolboy who knew anything of the wonders of the bee-world, or was able to manipulate a hive. We venture to say that the knowledge to be gained thus would be an education in itself. Bees do nothing invariably'; and the greatest bee-master is always learning. No other creature, wild or tame, is at once so interesting and so easily studied.

TE

car

חר

But there is a more pressing reason why bee-keeping hould be encouraged, and that is the need for homegrown sugar or its equivalent. Honey is not merely an fficient substitute for sugar, even in tea, coffee, and jam, ut a much better food. Being pre-digested by the bee, tis at once assimilated by the human organism. It is ised in numerous medicines, and, eaten with bread, forms much more sustaining meal than butter or jam.

Bees may be kept almost anywhere. They do not sally fly more than a mile for their food, but have een known to go as many as four. M. Maeterlinck has

kept them in Paris. An attic with an open window ca serve for an apiary. Noise is no obstacle; bees ca be kept successfully on a railway embankment. Bu it is scarcely necessary to add that, the greater and mor accessible the food-supply, the larger will be the intak of honey. In America this is fully realised. The larg bee-farmers there grow lucerne, melilot, buckwheat and other crops, primarily for their nectar, and only secondarily as fodder. In England, on the other hand we still depend chiefly on orchards, miscellaneous flowers and the small white clover that grows by the wayside and in pastures. There is room for much enterprise and initiative here. Mr Simmins, in his stimulating book 'A Modern Bee-Farm,' shows how a small farm may be worked in connexion with an apiary, where the crops cows, poultry, and bees are made mutually supporting That bees increase the yield of an orchard by fertilising the blossom is well known to most fruit-growers, but too few take advantage of the fact. Mr C. H. Hooper, in a lecture delivered to the Linnean Society in 1912, records that, out of nearly 3000 insects observed by him visiting fruit-blossoms, 88 per cent. were hive bees. Mr T. W. Cowan, the well-known bee-expert and co-editor of the 'Bee-keepers' Record,' wrote thus in 1909 of an orchard in California, which bore so badly that it had been condemned to be cut down:

'It was spring, and the trees were a magnificent sight, being in full bloom. As we were going round I noticed that there were no bees of any sort on the blossoms, and therefore asked my friend how far was the nearest apiary. He told me it was at Newcastle, five miles from where we were. I said those bees were no use to him at all, and advised him to give the trees another season's trial, and to get some bees at once, and, if then the trees did not bear fruit, he could replant in the autumn. He was an intelligent man and took my advice, and obtained two colonies of bees, which he placed in the centre of his orchard. Of course, by that time, more than half the blossom was over, but for all that he got a fair amount of fruit, the trees nearest the hives having the most on them. This was the first fruit my friend had obtained from his trees; and he was so well pleased that, instead of destroying the trees, he got more bees. On visiting him the next year he took me out to see his orchard, which was a perfect sight,