CONCLUSION 187 



tlirough the ages until the arrival of the biped with a* 

 brain to invent a microscope to discover it ? I think 

 not entirely. The unexplored universe just under our 

 eyes has been there all the time, and moreover, since it 

 contains such loveliness often side by side with what in 

 our eyes seems to be such squalor, uncleanness and degrada- 

 tion, then I say that the beauty, as well as the beasthness, 

 must be quite patent to the creatures themselves, or to 

 their spirit motive force, which is about the same thing. 

 We do not invest them with a soul, but the power and 

 the purpose behind them are almost tantamount to it. 

 Our Peacock Butterfly, they say, has more than a thou- 

 sand eyes in one on each side of its head. Who knows 

 how the present world appears in its Hne of vision ? Are 

 those eyes all focussed on one nerve-centre, or do they 

 see infinitely more than is vouchsafed to us ? Or, in a 

 hghter vein, may we ask whether the Peacock Butterfly, 

 soaring up the Strand and into the Smallholder Offices 

 would see 2,000 Editors busily at work telUng the land 

 folk of Great Britain and the Colonies how to small-hold ? 

 The fact is, we know so little about this thing, and our 

 opportunity at every moment of time is so great, that 

 this pest and parasite question, instead of being a nui- 

 sance, is really one of the greatest blessings in disguise 

 that we have. It is part of the great Nature-drama, 

 containing characters both good and evil. Evil courses 

 will some day be traced to faults and excesses, and to 

 civilisation being at variance with the general plan, so 

 that in our pest problem lies somewhere and somehow, 

 the key to human destinj^ to a door which, once unlocked, 

 will open up the golden age, and give to our race what 

 none of us have yet enjoyed, viz. satiety. This is no mere 

 dream of the fancy, although often treated as such. The 

 Eastern seer who told us that the wolf shall dwell with 

 the lamb ; and that the lion shall eat straw like the ox, 

 was not telling us of an unreachable ideal, but of a great 

 possibiliiy in the final kingdom of peace. Let us there- 

 fore cherish those beautiful things that still remain, even 



