The Life of the Bee 
The man who feels thus will never 
attempt to deny the reason or virtue of his 
ideal, hallowed by so many heroes and sages; 
but there are times when he will whisper 
to himself that this ideal, perhaps, has 
been formed at too great a distance from 
the enormous mass whose diverse beauty 
it would fain represent. He has hitherto 
legitimately feared that the attempt to adapt 
his morality to that of Nature would risk 
the destruction of what was her masterpiece. 
But to-day he understands her a little better; 
and from some of her replies, which, though _ 
still vague, reveal an unexpected breadth, 
he has been enabled to seize a glimpse of a 
plan and an intellect vaster than could be 
conceived by his unaided imagination ; where- 
fore he has grown less afraid, nor feels any 
longer the same imperious need of the 
refuge his own special virtue and reason 
afford him. He concludes that what is so 
great could surely teach nothing that would 
tend to lessen itself. He wonders whether 
the moment may not have arrived for sub- 
mitting to a more judicious examination his 
convictions, his principles, and his dreams, 
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