More Beetles 



Of all the signs which we employ in writ- 

 ing, the one most nearly resembling the idea 

 which it expresses is the note of interroga- 

 tion. At the bottom, a round speck : the ball 

 of the world. Above it, twisted into a great 

 crozier, is the lituus of antiquity, the augur's 

 wand interrogating the unknown. I like to 

 regard this sign as the emblem of science in 

 perpetual colloquy with the how and why of 

 things. 



Now, high as it may rise to obtain a bet- 

 ter view, this questioning staff is surrounded 

 by a narrow and obscure horizon, which 

 future investigations will replace by other 

 horizons more remote and no less obscure. 

 Beyond all these horizons, laboriously torn 

 asunder, one by one, by the progress of 

 knowledge, beyond all this obscurity, what 

 is there? Assuredly, the broad light of day, 

 the wherefore of the why, the reason of rea- 

 sons, in short the great x of the world's equa- 

 tion. So says our questioning instinct, ever 

 dissatisfied, never weary; and instinct, which 

 is infallible in the animal domain, should be 

 no less so in the domain of the mind. 



So far as lies in my power, I have sought 

 to discern the essential motives of the insect's 

 anomalies. By no means always has the 

 276 



