THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT 177 



That were too childish ; nor is it possible, thanks to the 

 excellent habits every loyal mind has to-day acquired. 



The fact being incontestable, we must evidently admit 

 that the exsertion of the organ is rendered possible only by 

 the expansion of the tracheal vesicles. But if we, content 

 with this fact, did not let our eyes roam beyond it ; if we 

 deduced therefrom that every thought that rises too high or 

 wanders too far must be of necessity wrong, and that truth 

 must be looked for only in the material details ; if we did 

 not seek, no matter where, in uncertainties often far greater 

 than the one this little explanation has solved, in the strange 

 mystery of crossed fertilisation, for instance, or in the per- 

 petuity of the race and life, or in the scheme of nature ; if 

 we did not seek in these for something beyond the current 

 explanation, something that should prolong it and conduct 

 us to the beauty and grandeur that repose in the unknown, 

 I would almost venture to assert that we should pass our 

 existence further away from the truth than those even who, 

 in this case, wilfully shut their eyes to all save the poetic 

 and wholly imaginary interpretation of these marvellous 

 nuptials. They evidently misjudge the form and colour of 

 the truth, but they live in its atmosphere and its influence 

 far more than the others, who complacently believe that the 

 entire truth lies captive within their two hands. For the first 

 have made ample preparations to receive the truth, have pro- 

 vided most hospitable lodging within them ; and even though 

 their eyes may not see it, they are eagerly looking towards 

 the beauty and grandeur where its residence surely must be. 



We know nothing of nature's aim, which for us is the 

 truth that dominates every other. But for the very love of 



z 



