CHAPTER V 
THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE HIVE 
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 
52 67 
