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But He has made clear the wisdom and at the same time the usefulness of a few arts, of which the human mind became the inventor. But those invented for the sake of ambition and luxury—I mean painting, and sculpture, and statue-making and goldsmithing, and the art of cooking and the inventions of countless cakes—He has willingly omitted; and in addition to these, also the meddlings beyond measure—I mean astronomy, and geometry, and arithmetic and music, whose work is to charm the ear and transport it, and to change the dispositions of the soul to what it wishes, and to relax the despondent soul into cheerfulness, and to make the relaxed one intense and brave; these and such as these the account has willingly passed over, both avoiding length, and caring for brevity, and entrusting to the mind of the hearers the theory of each art. For it is easy from what has been said to take starting-points for the understanding of the things omitted. But perhaps those who do not know how to praise the benefactor, but have learned to be sycophants, might say that the Creator did not grant the invention of the arts to the nature of men alone; for it is possible to see even the smallest race of winged creatures, the bees, choosing a political and social life, and armed with a sting on account of their weakness, and taking off from the hives in turn and in order, and crossing the air, and flying around groves and meadows and cornfields, and settling on flowers, and leaves, and fruits, and collecting what is downy and useful, and loading themselves, and placing the loads both on their 83.625 hooked legs and on their necks, and thus returning to the hives; then building the honeycombs, needing neither ruler nor square, and making the angles equal to each other beyond all geometric science, and the fabrics of the walls, and the partitions for the honey, being constructed very fine and delicate and membranous, and holding together very well the liquid nature of the honey with these fine and numerous partitions, and thus making the receptacles full of the sweet streams of honey. What such thing, they say, has the nature of men contrived, which is divided into students and teachers, and accomplishes its art with much labor and time, like the industrious and beauty-loving race of bees, which is not divided into teachers and students, nor has been taught its art with straps and rods, but having its marvelous work innate and self-taught, both weaves the honeycombs, and fills the receptacles, needing no measures, no points, no angles? And it fills its receptacles, not by pressing clusters of grapes, nor by damaging any other fruit, but by drawing off the fine part of the dew, and skillfully fashioning the nature of the honey. Come then, let us weave our defense from the accusation itself; for it will be very easily resolved by itself. For the bees offer that great and ingenious labor, and the best and sweetest fruit of their labor, to the nature of men; and like certain servants compelled by the law of mastery, they both go out of their dwellings, and collect what is useful, and continue to carry burdens, and build diligently, and infuse the streams of honey, they put marks and seals upon it as on some treasure, and supply it as a kind of duty and tribute perpetually to men as to kings. Why then, O wretched man, are you a sycophant, and enjoying the tribute, do you blaspheme the collector of the tribute, and reveling in the labors of others, do you shoot down their provider with ungrateful words? And not only do you reap the fruits of their industry, but you also harvest another benefit from this. For first you learn of how many good things concord is the agent, and of what great fruits it happens to be the creator. For the swarms of bees imitate a political life; nothing among them is private, but their wealth is common, their possession is undivided. They have no lawsuits,

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τεχνῶν δὲ ὀλίγων τὴν σοφίαν ὁμοῦ καὶ τὴν χρείαν δήλην πεποίηκεν, ὧν ὁ νοῦς ὁ ἀνθρώπειος εὑρετὴς ἐγένετο. Τὰς δὲ, φιλοτι μίας ἕνεκεν καὶ τρυφῆς εὑρημένας, ζωγραφικήν φημι, καὶ πλαστικὴν, ἀγαλματουργικήν τε καὶ χρυ σοχοϊκὴν, ὀψαρτυτικήν τε καὶ ποπάνων μυρίων εὑρήματα, ἑκὼν παραλέλοιπε· πρὸς δὲ τούτοις, καὶ τὰς πέρα τοῦ μέτρου πολυπραγμοσύνας, ἀστρονομι κὴν λέγω, καὶ γεωμετρικὴν, ἀριθμητικήν τε καὶ μουσικὴν, ἧς ἔργον κατακηλεῖν τὴν ἀκοὴν καὶ μεταφέρειν, καὶ τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς διαθέσεις πρὸς ὃ βούλεται μεταβάλλειν, καὶ τὴν μὲν ἀθυμοῦσαν εἰς θυμηδίαν χαλᾷν, τὴν δὲ κεχαλασμένην, σύντονον καὶ ἀνδρείαν ἐργάζεσθαι· ταύτας καὶ τὰς τοιαύτας ἑκὼν ὁ λόγος παρέλιπε, καὶ τὸ μῆκος φεύγων, καὶ συντομίας φροντίζων, καὶ τῇ διανοίᾳ τῶν ἀκουόντων τὴν τέχνης ἑκάστης θεωρίαν ἐπιτρέπων. Ῥᾴδιον γὰρ ἐκ τῶν εἰρημένων ἀφορμὰς εἰς κατανόησιν τῶν παραλειφθέντων παραλαβεῖν. Ἀλλ' ἴσως ἂν εἴποιεν οἱ τὸν εὐεργέτην ὑμνεῖν οὐκ εἰδότες, συκοφαντεῖν δὲ μεμαθηκότες, ὡς οὐ μόνον τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῶν τεχνῶν τὴν εὕρεσιν ὁ Ποιητὴς ἐδωρήσατο· ἔστι γὰρ ἰδεῖν καὶ τῶν πτηνῶν τὸ σμικρότατον γένος, τὰς μελίττας, πολιτικὸν καὶ κοινωνικὸν αἱρουμένας βίον, διὰ δὲ τὴν ἀσθένειαν τῷ κέντρῳ καθωπλισμένας, ἀμοιβαδὸν δὲ καὶ κατὰ τάξιν ἐκ τῶν σίμβλων ἀπαιρούσας, καὶ τὸν ἀέρα διαπερώσας, καὶ ἄλση καὶ λειμῶνας καὶ λήϊα περι πετομένας, καὶ ἄνθεσι, καὶ φύλλοις, καὶ καρ ποῖς ἐφιζανούσας, καὶ τὸ χνοῶδες καὶ χρειῶδες συλ λεγούσας, καὶ σφᾶς αὐτὰς φορτιζούσας, καὶ ταῖς τε 83.625 ἀγκύλαις τῷ τε αὐχένι τὰ φορτία περιτιθείσας, καὶ οὕτως εἰς τοὺς σίμβλους ἐπανιούσας· εἶτα οἰκοδο μούσας τὰ κηρία, μήτε κανόνος μήτε γνώμονος δεο μένας, καὶ τάς τε γωνίας ἴσας ἀλλήλαις ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν γραμμικὴν ἐπιστήμην ἐργάζεσθαι, τά τε τῶν τοίχων ὑφάσματα, καὶ τὰ τοῦ μέλιτος διαφράγματα, λεπτὰ μάλα καὶ ἤτρια καὶ ὑμενώδη δομεῖσθαι, καὶ τὴν ὑγρὰν τοῦ μέλιτος φύσιν τοῖς λεπτοῖς τούτοις καὶ συχνοῖς διατειχίσμασιν εὖ μάλα συνέχειν, εἶθ' οὕτω τῶν γλυκέων τοῦ μέλιτος ναμάτων τὰ δοχεῖα ἀνά πλεα ποιεῖν. Τί τοιοῦτον, φασὶν, ἐτεχνάσατο τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἡ φύσις, εἰς φοιτητὰς καὶ διδασκάλους δι ηρημένη, καὶ πόνῳ πολλῷ καὶ χρόνῳ κατορθοῦσα τὴν τέχνην, οἷα τῶν μελιττῶν τὸ φιλόπονον καὶ φιλόκαλον γένος, οὐκ εἰς διδασκάλους καὶ φοιτητὰς μεμερι σμένον, οὐδὲ ἱμάσι καὶ ῥάβδοις τὴν τέχνην δεδιδα γμένον, ἀλλ' ἔμφυτον ἔχον καὶ αὐτοδίδακτον τὴν ἀμήχανον ἐργασίαν, ὑφαίνει τε τὰ κηρία, καὶ πλη ροῖ τὰ δοχεῖα, οὐ μέτρων, οὐ κέντρων, οὐ γωνιῶν δεομένη; Καὶ τὰ δοχεῖα πληροῖ, οὐκ ἀποθλίβουσα βότρυας, οὐδ' ἑτέρῳ καρπῷ λυμαινομένη, ἀλλὰ τῆς δρόσου τὸ λεπτὸν ἀρυομένη, καὶ τοῦ μέλιτος φιλοτε χνοῦσα τὴν φύσιν. Φέρε τοίνυν, ἐξ αὐτῆς τῆς κατ ηγορίας τὴν ἀπολογίαν ὑφαίνωμεν· κομιδῇ γὰρ εὐπε τῶς ὑφ' ἑαυτῆς λυθήσεται. Αἱ γὰρ μέλιτται τὸν πο λὺν ἐκεῖνον καὶ εὐφυῆ πόνον, καὶ τὸν ἄριστον δὲ καὶ ἥδιστον τοῦ πόνου καρπὸν, τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀνθρώπων προσφέρουσι· καὶ οἷόν τινες οἰκέται ὑπὸ τοῦ νόμου τῆς δεσποτείας ἀναγκαζόμεναι, καὶ τῶν οἰκήσεων ἐξίασι, καὶ τὸ χρειῶδες συλλέγουσι, καὶ ἀχθοφοροῦ σαι διατελοῦσι, καὶ σπουδαίως οἰκοδομοῦσι, καὶ τοῦ μέλιτος ἐνιεῖσαι τὰ νάματα, ὥσπερ τινὶ θησαυρῷ σήμαντρα καὶ σφραγῖδας ἐπιβάλλουσι, καὶ οἷόν τινα δασμὸν καὶ φόρον, ὡς βασιλεῦσι διηνεκῶς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις χορηγοῦσι. Τί οὖν, ὦ ταλαίπωρε, συκοφαν τεῖς, καὶ τὸν φόρον καρπούμενος, τοῦ φόρου τὸν πράκτορα βλασφημεῖς, καὶ τοῖς ἀλλοτρίοις πόνοις ἐπεντρυφῶν, τὸν τούτων χορηγὸν λόγοις ἀχαρίστοις κατατοξεύεις; Οὐ μόνον δὲ τοὺς τῆς φιλοπονίας αὐτῶν δρέπῃ καρποὺς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑτέραν ὠφέλειαν ἐντεῦθεν τρυγᾷς. Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ μανθάνεις, ὅσων ἀγαθῶν ἡ ὁμόνοια πρόξενος, καὶ ἡλίκων καρπῶν τυγχάνει δημιουργός. Πολιτικὸν γὰρ βίον μιμεῖται τὰ σμήνη τῶν μελιττῶν· οὐδὲν παρ' ἐκείναις ἴδιον, ἀλλὰ κοινὸς ὁ πλοῦτος, ἀμέριστος ἡ κτῆσις. Οὐκ ἔχουσι δίκας,