Action is a Reasonable Duty, how variously soever it may be Exercised,
whether in the Functions of Power, or in the Offices of Subjection.
A Reasonable Soul can no more stand still, then the Sun can stop its
course. This Fable branches out into several Morals: First, it serves
for a Reproof of Sloth. Secondly, In the _Bees_ being Corrupted by the
Practice of the _Drones_, it shews us the Danger and the Force of Ill
Example; especially where there’s Ease and Sensuality to strengthen
the Temptation, which must needs be wonderfully Powerful, where the
_Emblem_ of _Industry_ on the one hand, comes to be wrought upon by the
very _Emblem_ of _Laziness_ on the other. Thirdly, it leads us to a
Consideration of the End of an Unactive and an Unprofitable Life. The
Bees Summer-Friends Forsake her; those of her own Family shut the Doors
against her; and so she’s Abandon’d to the wide World, as an Object of
Detestation and Scorn.