Garden Spiders: Question of Property 



doubtful value were twice foolish. The 

 Spider knows this and forbears. 



But let the Banded Epeira, deprived of her 

 web, come upon that of one of her kind or of 

 the Silky Epeira, who works her gummy twine 

 in the same manner : then discretion is thrown 

 to the winds ; the owner is fiercely ripped open 

 and possession taken of the property. 



Might is right, says the beast; or, rather, it 

 knows no right. The animal world is a rout 

 of appetites, acknowledging no other rein 

 than impotence. Mankind, alone capable of 

 emerging from the slough of the instincts, is 

 bringing equity into being, is creating it slowly 

 as its conception grows clearer. Out of the 

 sacred rushlight, so flickering as yet, but gain- 

 ing strength from age to age, man will make a 

 flaming torch that will put an end, among us, 

 to the principles of the brutes and one day, 

 utterly change the face of society. 



329 



