The Mantis: her Hatching 



manifestations of life, must undergo slow 

 and most delicate elaboration. That elabo- 

 ration begins in the workshop of the infinitely- 

 small, of the microbe, for instance, one of 

 which, more powerful than the lightning's 

 might, combines oxygen and nitrogen and 

 produces nitrates, the primary food of 

 plants. It begins on the confines of nothing- 

 ness, is improved in the vegetal, is yet further 

 refined in the animal and step by step attains 

 the substance of the brain. 



How many hidden labourers, how many 

 unknown manipulators worked perhaps for 

 centuries, first at getting the rough ore and 

 then at the refining of that grey matter which 

 becomes the brain, the most marvellous of 

 the implements of the mind, even if it were 

 capable only of making us say : 



" Two and two are four ! " 



The rocket, when rising, reserves for the 

 culminating point of its ascent the dazzling 

 fountain of its many-coloured lights. Then 

 all is dark again. Its smoke, its gases, its 

 oxides will, in the long run, be able to recon- 

 stitute other explosives by vegetable pro- 

 cesses. Even so does matter act in its meta- 

 morphoses. From stage to stage, from one 

 delicate refinement to another yet more deli- 



185 



