The Life of the Bee 



the boundaries of instinct, without doing 

 anything but what is ordinary, that would 

 be very interesting too, and very extraor- 

 dinary. Restore the ordinary and the 

 marvellous to their veritable place in the 

 bosom of nature, and their values shift ; 

 one equals the other. We find that their 

 names are usurped ; and that it is not 

 they, but the things we cannot under- 

 stand or explain that should arrest our 

 attention, refresh our activity, and give a 

 new and juster form to our thoughts and 

 feelings and words. There is wisdom in 

 attaching oneself to nought beside. 



[Ill] 



And further, our intellect is not the 

 proper tribunal before which to summon 

 the bees, and pass their faults in review. 

 Do we not find, among ourselves, that 

 consciousness and intellect long will dwell 

 in the midst of errors and faults without 

 412 



