The Life of the Bee 
it well to adjust the presumed inadvertence 
out yonder. She has placed the three flowers 
we mentioned under conditions of such 
difficulty that they are unable to fertilise 
themselves; she considers it beneficial, there- 
fore, for reasons beyond our powers of per- 
ception, that they should cause themselves 
to be fertilised by their neighbours; and, 
inasmuch as she enhances the intelligence of 
her victims, she displays on our right the 
genius she failed to display on our left. 
The byways of this genius of hers remain 
incomprehensible to us, but its level is 
always the same. It will appear to fall into 
error—assuming that error be possible— 
thereupon rising again at once in the organ 
charged to repair this error. Turn where 
we may, it towers high over our heads. It 
is the circular ocean, the tideless water, 
whereon our boldest and most independent 
thoughts will never be more than mere ab- 
ject bubbles. We call it Nature to-day— 
to-morrow perhaps we shall give it another 
name, softer or more alarming. In the 
meanwhile it holds simultaneous, impartial 
sway over life and death; furnishing the 
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