The Life of the Bee 



[93] 



" Let us sit on these sheaves," he con- 

 tinued, "and look again. Let us reject 

 not a single one of the little facts that 

 build up the reality of which I have 

 spoken. Let us permit them to depart 

 of their own accord into space. They 

 cumber the foreground, and yet we can- 

 not but be aware of the existence behind 

 them of a great and very curious force 

 that sustains the whole. Does it only 

 sustain and not raise ? These men whom 

 we see before us are at least no longer 

 the ferocious animals of whom La 

 Bruyere speaks, the wretches who talked 

 in a kind of inarticulate voice, and 

 withdrew at night to their dens, where 

 they lived on black bread, water, and 

 roots. 



" The race, you will tell me, is neither 

 as strong nor as healthy. That may be ; 

 338 



