37^ The Hunting Wasps 



For these among many other reasons, I reject 

 the modem theory of instmct. I see in it no 

 more than an ingenious game in which the arm- 

 chair naturahst, the man who shapes the world 

 according to his whim, is able to take delight, 

 but in which the observer, the man grappling 

 with reality, fails to find a serious explanation 

 of anything whatsoever that he sees. In my 

 own surroundings, I notice that those who are 

 most positive in the matter of these difficult 

 questions are those who have seen the least. If 

 they have seen nothing at all, they go to the 

 length of rashness. The others, the timid ones, 

 know more or less what they are talking about. 

 And is it not the same outside my modest 

 environment ? 



