The Sacred Beetle and Others 



special aptitudes in order to dodge an experi- 

 menter's wiles — what other means does she 

 possess of obviating the difficulties attendant 

 upon her normal labours? Do not lose sight 

 of this: she begins by shaping a sphere; and 

 the globular mass often does not differ from 

 the pills that have received the egg, in re- 

 spect of either form or size. 



Nowhere is there peace, not even below 

 ground. When, in a moment of panic, the 

 too-timid mother falls off her sphere and for- 

 sakes it to seek refuge elsewhere, how can 

 she afterwards find her ball again and 

 distinguish it from the others, without 

 running the risk of crushing an egg when she 

 is pressing in the top of a pill to make the 

 necessary crater? She needs a safe guide 

 here. What is that guide? I do not know. 



I have said it many a time and I say it 

 again: insects possess sense-faculties of 

 exquisite delicacy attuned to their special 

 trade, faculties of which we can form no 

 conception because we have nothing similar 

 within ourselves. A man blind from birth 

 can have no notion of colour. We are as 

 men blind from birth in the face of the un- 

 fathomable mysteries that surround us; and 

 myriads of questions arise to which no answer 

 can ever be given. 



214 



