The Sacred Beetle and Others 



time, especially as the favourable periods are 

 brief. Years elapse; and then very often 

 the perfect solution has not appeared. 

 There are always gaps in our sheaf of light; 

 and always behind the mysteries which the 

 rays have penetrated stand others, still 

 shrouded in darkness. 



I am perfectly aware that it would be 

 preferable to avoid repetitions and to give 

 a complete story every time ; but, in the 

 domain of instinct, who can claim a harvest 

 that leaves no grain for other gleaners? 

 Sometimes the handful of corn left on the 

 field is of more importance than the reaper's 

 sheaves. If we had to wait until we knew 

 every detail of the question studied, no one 

 would venture to write the little that he 

 knows. From time to time, a few truths are 

 revealed, tiny pieces of the vast mosaic of 

 things. Better to divulge the discovery, 

 however humble it be. Others will come 

 who, also gathering a few fragments, will 

 assemble the whole into a picture ever grow- 

 ing larger but ever notched by the unknown. 



And then the burden of years forbids me 

 •to entertain long hopes. Distrustful of the 

 morrow, I write from day to day, as I 

 make my observations. This method, one 

 of necessity rather than choice, sometimes 



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