368 The Life of the Spider 



She shortens the task by confining herself to a 

 skeleton of the curve which the other describes 

 to perfection. 



The Epeira, therefore, is versed in the geo- 

 metric secrets of the Ammonite and the Nautilus 

 pompilus ; she uses, in a simpler form, the loga- 

 rithmic line dear to the Snail. What guides 

 her ? There is no appeal here to a wriggle of 

 some kind, as in the case of the Worm that 

 ambitiously aspires to become a Mollusc. The 

 animal must needs carry within itself a virtual 

 diagram of its spiral. Accident, however fruit- 

 ful in surprises we may presume it to be, can 

 never have taught it the higher geometry 

 wherein our own inteUigence at once goes astray, 

 without a strict preliminary training. 



Are we to recognize a mere effect of organic 

 structure in the Epeira's art ? We readily 

 think of the legs, which, endowed with a very 

 varying power of extension, might serve as 

 compasses. More or less bent, more or less 

 outstretched, they would mechanically deter- 

 mine the angle whereat the spiral shall intersect 

 the radius ; they would maintain the parallel 

 of the chords in each sector. 



