The Swarm 
[ 20 ] 
Why do they thus renounce sleep, the 
delights of honey and love, and the ex- 
quisite leisure enjoyed, for instance, by 
their winged brother, the butterfly? 
Why will they not live as he lives? 
It is not hunger that urges them on. 
Two or three flowers suffice for their 
nourishment, and in one hour they will 
visit two or three hundred, to collect a 
treasure whose sweetness they never will 
taste. Why all this toil and distress, and 
whence comes this mighty assurance? Is 
it so certain, then, that the new generation 
whereunto you offer your lives will merit 
the sacrifice; will be more beautiful, hap- 
pier, will do something you have not 
done? Your aim is clear to us, clearer 
far than our own; you desire to live, 
as long as the world itself, in those that 
come after; but what can the aim be 
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