The Life of the Bee 



thing within me that already enfolds you. 

 You will destroy me, perhaps, but if your 

 object be not to construct from my ruins 

 an organism better than mine, you will 

 prove yourself inferior to what I am ; and 

 the silence that will follow the death of 

 the race to which I belong will declare to 

 you that you have been judged. And 

 if you are not capable even of caring 

 whether you be justly judged or not, of 

 what value can your secret be ? It must 

 be stupid or hideous. Chance has en- 

 abled you to produce a creature that you 

 yourself lacked the quality to produce. 

 It is fortunate for him that a contrary 

 chance should have permitted you to 

 suppress him before he had fathomed 

 the depths of your unconsciousness ; 

 more fortunate still that he does not 

 survive the infinite series of your awful 

 experiments. He had nothing to do in 

 a world where his intellect corresponded 



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