THE NUPTIAL FLIGHT 185 



" Besides, of what is this consciousness composed whereof 

 we are so proud ? Of far more shadow than Hght, of far more 

 acquired ignorance than knowledge, of far more things whose 

 comprehension, we are well aware, must ever elude us, than of 

 things that we actually know. And yet in this consciousness 

 lies all our dignity, our most veritable greatness ; it is probably 

 the most surprising phenomenon this world contains. It is this 

 which permits us to raise our head before the unknown principle, 

 and say to it, ' What you are I know not, but there is something 

 within me that already enfolds you. You will destroy me 

 perhaps, but if your object be not to construct, from my ruins, 

 an organism better than mine, you will prove yourself inferior 

 to what I am, and the silence that will follow the death of the 

 race to which I belong will declare to you that you have been 

 judged. And if you are not capable even of caring whether you 

 be justly judged or not, of what value can your secret be ? It 

 must be stupid or hideous. Chance has enabled you to produce 

 a creature that you yourself lacked the quality to produce. It 

 is fortunate for him that a contrary chance should have per- 

 mitted you to suppress him, before he had fathomed the depths 

 of your unconsciousness ; more fortunate still that he does not 

 survive the infinite series of your awful experiments. He had 

 nothing to do in a world where his intellect corresponded to no 

 eternal intellect, where his desire for the better could attain no 

 actual good.' 



" Once more, for the spectacle to absorb us there is no 

 need of progress. The enigma suffices, and that enigma is as 

 great, and shines as mysteriously, in the peasants as in ourselves. 

 As we trace life back to its all-powerful principle it confronts 

 us on every side. To this principle each succeeding century 



2 A 



