The Life of the Bee 



after-taste, as it were, of her one mar- 

 riage-flight, from the union of the male 

 and female principle that thus comes to 

 pass in her being. Here again nature, 

 never so ingenious, so cunningly pru- 

 dent and diverse, as when contriving her 

 snares of love, will not have failed to 

 provide a certain pleasure as a bait in 

 the interest of the species. And yet let 

 us pause for a moment, and not become 

 the dupes of our own explanation. For 

 indeed, to attribute an idea of this kind to 

 nature, and regard that as sufficient, is 

 like flinging a stone into an unfathomable 

 gulf we may find in the depths of a grotto, 

 and imagining that the sounds it creates 

 as it falls shall answer our every question, 

 or reveal to us aught beside the immensity 

 of the abyss. 



When we say to ourselves, " This thing 

 is of nature's devising ; it is she has or- 

 dained this marvel ; those are her desires 

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