The Life of the Bee 



" Let us sit on these sheaves," he con- 

 tinued, " and look again. Let us reject 

 not a single one of the Httle facts that 

 build up the reality of which I have 

 spoken. Let us permit them to depart 

 of their own accord into space. They 

 cumber the foreground, and yet v/e can- 

 not but be aware of the existence behind 

 them of a great and very curious force 

 that sustains the whole. Does it only 

 sustain and not raise? These men whom 

 we see before us are at least no longer 

 the ferocious animals of whom La 

 Bruyere speaks, the wretches who talked 

 in a kind of inarticulate voice, and 

 withdrew at night to their dens, where 

 they lived on black bread, water, and 

 roots. 



" The race, you will tell me, is neither 

 as strong nor as healthy. That may be ; 



338 



