The Foundation of the City 
prudent and diverse as when contriving her 
snares of love, will not have failed to provide 
a certain pleasure as a bait in the interest 
of the species.—And yet let us pause for a 
moment, and not become the dupes of our 
own explanation. For indeed, to attribute 
an idea of this kind to nature, and regard 
that as sufficient, is like flinging a stone 
into an unfathomable gulf we may find in 
the depths of a grotto, and imagining that 
the sounds it creates as it falls shall answer 
our every question, or reveal to us aught 
beside the immensity of the abyss. 
When we say to ourselves, ‘‘ This thing is 
of nature’s devising; it is she has ordained 
this marvel; those are her desires that we 
see before us,” the fact is merely that our 
special attention has been drawn to some 
tiny manifestation of life upon the boundless 
surface of matter that we deem inactive, 
and choose to describe, with evident in- 
accuracy, as nothingness and death. A 
purely fortuitous chain of events has allowed 
this special manifestation to attract our 
attention; but a thousand others, no less 
interesting, perhaps, and informed with no 
