The Life of the Bee 
and loveliest, in virginal, limitless space, 
stamps the instant of happiness on the 
sublime transparence of the great sky; 
purifying in that immaculate light the 
something of wretchedness that always 
hovers around love, rendering the kiss one 
that can never be forgotten; and, content 
this time with moderate tithe, proceeding 
herself, with hands that are almost maternal, 
to introduce and unite, in one body, for 
a long and inseparable future, two little 
fragile lives. 
Profound truth has not this poetry, but 
possesses another that we are less apt to 
grasp, which, however, we should end, per- 
haps, by understanding and loving. Nature 
has not gone out of her way to provide 
these two ‘‘abbreviated atoms,” as Pascal 
would call them, with a resplendent marriage, 
or an ideal moment of love. Her concern, 
‘as we have said, was merely to improve the 
race by means of crossed fertilisation. To 
ensure this she has contrived the organ of 
the male in such a fashion that he can make 
use of it only in space. A prolonged flight 
must first expand his two great tracheal sacs ; 
262 
