374 The Life of the Spider 



and, bending under the burden, have become 

 so many catenaries, so many chaplets of Umpid 

 gems, graceful chaplets arranged in exquisite 

 order and following the curve of a swing. If 

 the sun pierce the mist, the whole lights up with 

 iridescent fires and becomes a resplendent cluster 

 of diamonds. The number e is in its glory. 



Geometry, that is to say, the science of 

 harmony in space, presides over everything. 

 We find it in the arrangement of the scales of a 

 fir-cone, as in the arrangement of an Epeira's 

 limy web ; we find it in the spiral of a Snail- 

 shell, in the chaplet of a Spider's thread, as in 

 the orbit of a planet ; it is everywhere, as 

 perfect in the world of atoms as in the world of 

 immensities. 



And this universal geometry tells us of an 

 Universal Geometrician, whose divine compass 

 has measured all things. I prefer that, as an 

 explanation of the logarithmic curve of the 

 Ammonite and the Epeira, to the Worm screw- 

 ing up the tip of its tail. It may not perhaps 

 be in accordance with latter-day teaching, but 

 it takes a loftier flight. 



