sweet-scented plants, he says (I will translate for 

 the benefit of the purely English reader, at the 

 risk of spoiling the original) : " Ah ! I now under- 

 stand the joy vouchsafed to Thine elect which I 

 have sometimes smiled at ironically; that ineffa- 

 ble joy of seeing Thee face to face. I understand 

 it by the delight which I experience in the con- 

 templation of the smallest of Thy works, hidden 

 away in the greensward or secluded in the foliage. 

 O Lord! when I give myself up to the con- 

 templation of nature, it seems to me that Thou art 

 no longer hidden from view but by a veil so 

 transparent that the lightest breath of air 

 would raise it. O Lord! what do those . . . 

 people want who ask for miracles, and those 

 other . . . people who relate them? Is there 

 a single blade of grass which is not a miracle 

 far above the mythologies of all times and of all 

 nations? O Lord! does not the least of Thy 

 insects speak to me more eloquently of Thy power 

 than those ridiculous advocates who have the in- 

 solence to defend Thee as a culprit and to discuss 

 Thee in their folly and vacuity?" 

 Talking on the life of insects and reflecting how 

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