The Young Queens 



corruption, and writhes miserably in the 

 void ; as we might quote also the strange 

 phenomena of crystalline cicatrisation and 

 reintegration mentioned by Claude Ber- 

 nard, etc. But the mystery here becomes 

 too foreign to us. Let us keep to our 

 flowers, which are the last expression of a 

 life that has yet some kinship with our 

 own. We are not dealing now with ani- 

 mals or insects, to which we attribute a 

 special, intelligent will, thanks to which 

 they survive. We believe, rightly or 

 wrongly, that the flowers possess no such 

 will ; at least we cannot discover in them 

 the slightest trace of the organs wherein 

 will, intellect, and initiative of action, are 

 usually born and reside. It follows, 

 therefore, that all that acts in them in so 

 admirable a fashion must directly proceed 

 from what we elsewhere call nature. We 

 are no longer concerned with the intellect 



of the individual ; here we find the un- 



287 



