The Life of the Bee 
a single one of the little facts that build up 
the reality of which I have spoken. Let us 
permit them to depart of their own accord 
into space. They cumber the foreground, 
and yet we cannot but be aware of the exist- 
ence, behind them, of a great and very 
curious force that sustains the whole. Does 
it only sustain and not raise? These men 
whom we see before us at least are no 
longer the ferocious animals of whom La 
Bruyére speaks, the wretches who ‘ talked in 
a kind of inarticulate voice, and withdrew 
at night to their dens, where they lived on 
black bread, water, and roots.’ 
“The race, you will tell me, is neither 
as strong nor as healthy. That may be. 
Alcohol and the other scourge are accidents 
that humanity has to surmount; ordeals, 
it may be, by which certain of our organs, 
those of the nerves, for instance, may benefit ; 
for we inyariably find that life profits by 
the ills that it overcomes. Besides, a mere 
trifle that we may discover to-morrow may 
render these poisons innocuous. These men 
have thoughts and feelings that those of 
whom La Bruyére speaks had not.” “I prefer 
276 
