The Da Vinci Notebooks at sacred-texts.com
We may liken the virtue of Justice to the king of the bees which orders and arranges every thing with judgment. For some bees are ordered to go to the flowers, others are ordered to labour, others to fight with the wasps, others to clear away all dirt, others to accompany and escort the king; and when he is old and has no wings they carry him. And if one of them fails in his duty, he is punished without reprieve.
Although partridges steal each other's eggs, nevertheless the young born of these eggs always return to their true mother.