The Nuptial Flight 
flocks grazing yonder, with their shepherd 
asleep, and the last houses of the village, 
and the sea between the trees—all these are 
raised or degraded before they enter within 
us, are adorned or despoiled, in accordance 
with the little signal this choice of ours makes 
to them. We must learn to select from 
among these semblances of truth. I have 
spent my.own life in eager search for the 
smaller truths, the physical causes ; and now, 
at the end of my days, I begin to cherish, 
not what would lead me from these, but 
what would precede them, and, above all, 
what would somewhat surpass them.” 
We had attained the summit of a plateau 
in the Pays de Caux, in Normandy, which 
is supple as an English park, but natural 
and limitless. It is one of the rare spots 
on the globe where Nature reveals her- 
self to us unfailingly wholesome and green. 
A little farther to the north the country is 
threatened with barrenness; a little farther 
to the south it is fatigued and scorched by 
the sun. At the end of a plain that ran 
down to the edge of the sea, some peasants 
were erecting a stack of corn. ‘‘ Look,” he 
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