The Sloe-Weevil 



You think that you have raised a monu- 

 ment of Cyclopaean blocks and all that you 

 have built is a house of cards which tumbles 

 to pieces before the breath of reality. The 

 real Rhynchites not the imaginary one, but 

 the insect which any one can observe and 

 question at will ventures to tell you so, in 

 her artless sincerity. 



She tells you : 



"My manufactures, which are so contrary, 

 cannot be derived one from another. Our 

 talents are not the legacy of a common an- 

 cestress, for, to leave us such a heritage, the 

 original initiator would have had to be versed 

 at one and the same time in arts which are 

 mutually incompatible: that of leaf-rolling, 

 that of piercing fruit-stones and that of jam- 

 making, to say nothing of the rest, which you 

 don't yet know. If she was not capable of 

 doing everything, she must, at least, in course 

 of time, have given up a first trade and learnt 

 a second, then a third, then a host of others, 

 the knowledge of which is reserved for future 

 observers. Well, to practise several in- 

 dustries at the same time, or even, from 

 specializing in one department, to begin 

 specializing in some other, quite different 

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