The Life of the Bee 



be constantly blundering, no less in the 

 world of her first experiments than in that 

 of her last, of man. There she invests 

 with her sanction the instincts of the ob- 

 scure mass, the unconscious injustice of 

 the multitude, the defeat of intelligence 

 -and virtue, the uninspired morality which 

 urges on the great wave of the race, 

 though manifestly inferior to the morality 

 that could be conceived or desired by 

 the minds composing the small and the 

 clearer wave that ascends the other. And 

 yet, can such a mind be wrong if it ask 

 itself whether the whole truth — moral 

 truths, therefore, as well as non-moral — 

 had not better be sought in this chaos 

 than in itself, where these truths would 

 seem comparatively clear and precise ? 



The man who feels thus will never 



attempt to deny the reason or virtue of 



his ideal, hallowed by so many heroes 



and sages ; but there are times when he 



310 



