“For where's the state beneath the firmament
That doth excel the bees for government?”

—  Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas

First Week, Fifth Day, Part i. Compare: "So work the honey-bees, Creatures that by a rule in Nature teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom", William Shakespeare, Henry V, act i. sc. 3.
La Semaine; ou, Création du monde (1578)

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Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas48
French writer 1544–1590

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