CHAPTER V 



THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE HIVE 



A DOCTOR DRYASDUST will manage to 

 impart to the truths he meddles with a dis- 

 astrous air of dulness and stagnation ; but 

 to walk in a fools' paradise of beautiful, artistic 

 error is to lay oneself open to an infinitely worse 

 fate. There never was a truth in Nature that was 

 dull or uninteresting, except in its human present- 

 ment. There never was a pretty worthless fiction 

 that did not show its dross and tinsel when brought 

 out into the searching light of day. Romance, 

 the spirit of poetry, have largely changed their 

 venue of recent years. The unconscionable delver 

 among old things, old thoughts, old conventions, 

 on the strand of Time, has tarried so long in his 

 one little florid corner that he is in some danger 

 of being caught by the tide. He must soon either 

 mend his pace or swim for it. Human regard is 

 turning more and more towards those who deal in 

 living verities — the men who search the stars, who 

 win new powers out of the common air, who find 

 at last the authentic teachings in the old worn 

 S— 2 67 



