xxxiv The Life of the Spider 



ing degrees of dimness, to obtain an idea of 

 their places and extent. That already is some- 

 thing, pending the day of the first gleams of 

 Hght. In any case, it means doing, in the 

 presence of the mysteries, all that the most 

 upright intelHgence can do to-day ; and that 

 is what the author of this incomparable Iliad 

 does, with more confidence than he professes. 

 He gazes at them attentively. He wears out 

 his life in surprising their most minute secrets. 

 He prepares for them, in his thoughts and in 

 ours, the field necessary for their evolutions. 

 He increases the consciousness of his ignorance 

 in proportion to their importance and learns 

 to understand more and more that they are 

 incomprehensible . 



Maurice Maeterlinck. 



