THE EGG. 67 



Understand that this little point which to you seems imperceptible, 

 is an entire ocean — the sea of milk where floats in embryo the well- 

 beloved of heaven. It floats ; fears no shipwreck ; it is held suspended 

 by the most delicate ligaments ; it is saved from jar and shock. It 

 swims all gently in the warm element, as it will swim hereafter in 

 the atmosphere. A profound serenity, a perfect state in the bosom 

 of a nourishing habitation ! And how superior to all suckling 

 (allaitement) ! 



But see how, in this divine sleep, it has perceived its mother and 

 her magnetic warmth. And it, too, begins to dream. Its dream is 

 of motion ; it imitates, it conforms to its mother ; its first act, the 

 act of an obscure love, is to resemble her. 



" Knowest thou not that love transforms 

 Into itself whate'er it loves ? " 



And as soon as it resembles her, it will seek to join her. It in- 

 clines, it presses more closely against the shell, which thenceforth is 

 the sole barrier between it and its mother. Then, then she listens ! 

 Sometimes she is blessed by hearing already its first tender piping. 

 It will remain a prisoner no longer. Grown daring, it will take its 

 ovm part. It has a beak, and makes use of it. It strikes, it cracks, 

 it cleaves its prison wall. It has feet, and brings them to its assist- 

 ance. See now the work begun ! Its reward is deliverance ; it 

 enters into liberty. 



To tell the rapture, the agitation, the prodigious inquietude, the 

 mother's many cares, is beyond our province here ; of the difficulties 

 of its education we have already spoken. 



It is only through time and tenderness that the bird receives its 

 initiation. Superior by its powers of flight, it is so much the more 

 so through this, that it has had a home and has gained life through 

 its mother ; fed by her, and by its father emancipated, the freest of 

 beings is the favourite of love. 



If one wishes to admire the fertility of nature, the vigour of inven- 

 tion, the charming, and in a certain sense, the terrifying richness, which 

 from one identical creation draws a million of opposite miracles, one 



