The Life of the Bee 
thing within me that already enfolds you. 
You will destroy me, perhaps, but if your 
object be not to construct from my ruins 
an organism better than mine, you will 
prove yourself inferior to what I am; and 
the silence that will follow the death of 
the race to which I belong will declare to 
you that you have been judged. And 
if you are not capable even of caring 
whether you be justly judged or not, of 
what value can your secret be? It must 
be stupid or hideous. Chance has en- 
abled you to produce a creature that you 
yourself lacked the quality to produce. 
It is fortunate for him that a contrary 
chance should have permitted you to 
suppress him before he had fathomed 
the depths of your unconsciousness ; 
more fortunate stili that he does not 
survive the infinite series of your awful 
experiments. He had nothing to do in 
a world where his intellect corresponded 
342 
