The Nuptial Flight 



motive be first of all dear to us. It may 

 only be error, perhaps ; but this error 

 will not prevent the moment wherein this 

 object appears the most admirable to us 

 from being the moment wherein we are 

 likeliest to perceive its real beauty. The 

 beauty we lend it directs our attention to 

 its veritable beauty and grandeur, which, 

 derived as they are from the relation 

 wherein every object must of necessity 

 stand to general, eternal, forces and laws, 

 might otherwise escape observation. The 

 faculty of admiring which an illusion may 

 have created within us will serve for the 

 truth that must come, be it sooner or 

 later. It is with the words, the feelings, 

 and ardour created by ancient and imagi- 

 nary beauties, that humanity welcomes to- 

 day truths which perhaps would have never 

 been born, which might not have been 

 able to find so propitious a home, had 

 these sacrificed illusions not first of all 



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