‘The Life of the Bee 
of this great aim; what the mission of 
this existence eternally renewed? 
And yet may it not be that these ques- 
tions are idle, and we who are putting them 
to you mere childish dreamers, hedged 
round with error and doubt? And, in- 
deed, had successive evolutions installed 
you all-powerful and supremely happy ; 
had you gained the last heights, whence 
at length you ruled over nature’s laws; 
nay, were you immortal goddesses, we 
still should be asking you what your 
desires might be, your ideas of prog- 
ress; still wondering where you imag- 
ined that at last you would rest and 
declare your wishes fulfilled. We are 
so made that nothing contents us; that 
we can regard no single thing as having 
its aim self-contained, as simply existing, 
with no thought beyond existence. Has 
there been, to this day, one god out of all 
the multitude man has conceived, from 
7o 
