The Life of the Spider 



surpasses it when, on patient study, the main 

 features of its supreme perfection stand re- 

 vealed. What refinement of art for a mess of 

 Flies! Nowhere, in the whole animal king- 

 dom, has the need to eat inspired a more cun- 

 ning industry. If the reader will meditate 

 upon the description that follows, he will cer- 

 tainly share my admiration. 



First of all, we must witness the making of 

 the net; we must see it constructed and see it 

 again and again, for the plan of such a com- 

 plex work can only be grasped in fragments. 

 To-day, observation will give us one detail; 

 to-morrow, it will give us a second, suggesting 

 fresh points of view; as our visits multiply, 

 a new fact is each time added to the sum total 

 of the acquired data, confirming those which 

 come before or directing our thoughts along 

 unsuspected paths. 



The snow-ball rolling over the carpet of 

 white grows enormous, however scanty each 

 fresh layer be. Even so with truth in observa- 

 tional science : it is built up of trifles patiently 

 gathered together. And, while the collecting 

 of these trifles means that the student of 

 Spider industry must not be chary of his time, 

 at least it involves no distant and speculative 

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