The Sloe-Weevil 



You think that you have raised a monu- 

 ment of Cyclop£ean blocks and all that you 

 have built is a house of cards which tumbles 

 to pieces before the breath of reality. The 

 real Rhynchites — not the imaginary one, but 

 the insect which any one can observe and 

 question at will — ventures to tell you so, in 

 her artless sincerity. 



She tells you : 



"My manufactures, which are so contrary, 

 cannot be derived one from another. Our 

 talents are not the legacy of a common an- 

 cestress, for, to leave us such a heritage, the 

 original initiator would have had to be versed 

 at one and the same time in arts which are 

 mutually incompatible: that of leaf-rolling, 

 that of piercing fruit-stones and that of jam- 

 making, to say nothing of the rest, which you 

 don't yet know. If she was not capable of 

 doing everything, she must, at least, in course 

 of time, have given up a first trade and learnt 

 a second, then a third, then a host of others, 

 the knowledge of which is reserved for future 

 observers. Well, to practise several in- 

 dustries at the same time, or even, from 

 specializing in one department, to begin 

 specializing in some other, quite different 

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