The Nuptial Flight 



will whisper to himself that this ideal 

 has perhaps been formed at too great a 

 distance from the enormous mass whose 

 diverse beauty it would fain represent. 

 He has, hitherto, legitimately feared that 

 the attempt to adapt his morality to that 

 of nature would risk the destruction of 

 what was her masterpiece. But to-day 

 he understands her a little better ; and 

 from some of her replies, which, though 

 still vague, reveal an unexpected breadth, 

 he has been enabled to seize a glimpse of 

 a plan and an intellect vaster than could 

 be conceived by his unaided imagination ; 

 wherefore he has grown less afraid, nor 

 feels any longer the same imperious need 

 of the refuge his own special virtue and 

 reason afford him. He concludes that 

 what is so great could surely teach noth- 

 ing that would tend to lessen itself. He 

 wonders whether the moment may not 

 have arrived for submitting to a more 



