The Life of the Bee 
We touch here the hermetically sealed 
vases that furnish our conception of the 
universe. Reluctant, over and _ over 
again, to label these with the inscription 
“UNKNOWN,” that disheartens us and 
compels us to silence, we engrave upon 
them, in the degree of their size and 
grandeur, the words “ Nature, life, death, 
infinite, selection, spirit of the race,” and 
many others, even as those who went 
before us affixed the words “ God, Provi- 
dence, destiny, reward,” etc. Let it be 
so, if one will, and no more. But, though 
the contents of the vases remain obscure, 
there is gain at least in the fact that the 
inscriptions to-day convey less menace to 
us, that we are able therefore to approach 
them and touch them, and lay our ears 
close to them and listen, with wholesome 
curiosity. 
But whatever the name we attach to 
these vases, it is certain that one of them, 
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