The Life of the Bee 



We touch here the hermetically sealed 

 vases that furnish our conception of the 

 universe. Reluctant, over and over 

 again, to label these with the inscription 

 " UNKNOWN," that disheartens us and 

 compels us to silence, we engrave upon 

 them, in the degree of their size and 

 grandeur, the words " Nature, life, death, 

 infinite, selection, spirit of the race," and 

 many others, even as those who went 

 before us affixed the words " God, Provi- 

 dence, destiny, reward," etc. Let it be 

 so, if one will, and no more. But, though 

 the contents of the vases remain obscure, 

 there is gain at least in the fact that the 

 inscriptions to-day convey less menace to 

 us, that we are able therefore to approach 

 them and touch them, and lay our ears 

 close to them and listen, with wholesome 

 curiosity. 



But whatever the name we attach to 

 these vases, it is certain that one of them, 

 382 



