NEWS OF SPRING 



case, would hitherto represent, upon this earth, the mode of 

 life that offers the least resistance to this fluid, which the re- 

 ligions named divine. Our nerves would be the wires along 

 which this more subtle electricity would travel. The circum- 

 volutions of our brain would, in a manner, form the induc- 

 tion-coil wherein the force of the current would be multi- 

 plied; but this current would be of no other nature, would 

 proceed from no other scarce than that which passes through 

 the stone, the star, the flower or the animal. 



But these are mysteries which it were somewhat idle to 

 interrogate, seeing that we do not yet possess the organ that 

 could gather their reply. Let us be satisfied with having ob- 

 served certain manifestations of this intelligence outside our- 

 selves. All that we observe within ourselves is rightly open 

 to suspicion: we are at once litigant and judge and we have 

 too great an interest in peopling our world with magnificent 

 illusions and hopes. But let the least external indication be 

 dear and precious to us. Those which the flowers have just 

 offered us are probably infinitesimal compared with what the 

 mountains, the sea and the stars would tell us, could we sur- 

 prise the secrets of their life. Nevertheless, they allow us 

 to presume with greater confidence that the spirit which 



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