> Michel de Cubières (1752-1820), [is] a nearly forgotten poet. Among his works there is a poem entitled _Les abeilles ou l’heureux gouvernement,_ which means “The bees or the happy government,” published in 1793. In its preface he compares his own poem with Virgil’s (70-19 BC) Georgics and to Bernard Mandeville’s (1670-1733) The Fable of the Bees (1714). He states that Virgil made a “descriptive poem” where he gave advice for bee-keeping; he interprets Mandeville’s fable as a criticism to the defects of governments, and presents his own poem as partaking the nature of Virgil’s and Mandeville’s ones. At last he concludes: “bees were for us like the clouds; each of us saw in them what he wanted to see.” 

Drouin, J. M. (2017). Ants and bees. Between the French and the Darwinian revolution. Ludus Vitalis, 13(24), 3-14.

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html