The Foundation of the City 
this description to possess any interest it is 
essential that they should remain absolutely 
sincere. Had the conclusion been forced 
upon me that bees are incapable of com- 
municating to each other news of an event 
occurring outside the hive, I should, I 
imagine, as a set-off against the slight 
disappointment this discovery would have 
entailed, have derived some degree of satis- 
faction in recognising once more that man, 
after all, is the only truly intelligent being 
who inhabits our globe. And there comes 
too a period of life when we have more 
joy in saying the thing that is true than in 
saying the thing that merely is wonderful. 
Here as in every case the principle holds, 
that should the naked truth appear at the 
moment less interesting, less great and noble 
than the imaginary embellishment it lies in 
our power to bestow, the fault must rest 
with ourselves who still are unable to per- 
ceive the astonishing relation in which this 
truth always must stand to our being and to 
universal law; and in that case it is not the 
truth, but our intellect, that needs embel- 
lishment and ennoblement. 
133 
