The Life of the Bee 
after-taste, as it were, of her one mar- 
riage-flight, from the union of the male 
and female principle that thus comes to 
pass in her being. Here again nature, 
never so ingenious, so cunningly pru- 
dent and diverse, as when contriving her 
snares of love, will not have failed to 
provide a certain pleasure as a bait in 
the interest of the species. And yet let 
us pause for a moment, and not become 
the dupes of our own explanation. For 
indeed, to attribute an idea of this kind to 
nature, and regard that as sufficient, is 
like flinging a stone into an unfathomable 
gulf we may find in the depths of a grotto, 
and imagining that the sounds it creates 
as it falls shall answer our every question, 
or reveal to us aught beside the immensity 
of the abyss. 
When we say to ourselves, “ This thing 
is of nature’s devising; it is she has or- 
dained this marvel ; those are her desires 
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