The Sacred Beetle and Others 



throws aside the old moulds and replaces 

 them by others, fashioned with fresh care, in 

 accordance with plans of an inexhaustible 

 variety. Its laboratory is not a peddling 

 rag-fair, where the living assume the cast 

 clothes of the dead: it is a medaUist's studio, 

 where each effigy receives the stamp of a 

 special die. Its treasure-house of forms, 

 inimitable in its riches, makes niggardliness 

 impossible: there is no patching up of the 

 old in order to create the new. It breaks 

 every mould once used; it does away with it, 

 without restoring to shabby after-touches. 



Then what is the meaning of those horny 

 preparations, which are always blighted be- 

 fore they come to anything? With no great 

 shame I confess that I have not the slightest 

 idea. My reply may not be couched in 

 learned phraseology, but it has one merit, 

 that of absolute sincerity. 



420 



