WORKING FOR THE FUTURE. 
33 
soft, just as if it had been tapestried with cotton 
velvet, very heavy and lustreless. Is this black velvet ; 
produced from the wood itself, after undergoing power¬ 
ful modification, or by an extremely delicate layer of 
microscopic fungi which may have been established 
in the tree while it was still moist, and before it re¬ 
ceived its all-powerful necromancers ? The agent of the 
transformation betrayed itself directly: each separate 
cell, if closely smelt, betrayed the pungent odour of 
formic acid, by means of which the busy race had * 
effected the metamorphosis of its abode, had burned 
it and purified it with its flame, had dried it and ren¬ 
dered it wholesome with its useful poison. 
It is this acid also which, undoubtedly, had ac¬ 
celerated and assisted the enormous and colossal labour, 
had opened the way to the tiny efforts of those inde¬ 
fatigable sculptors whose chisels are their teeth. Yet 
even in this case there can be no question but that 
it must have occupied a considerable time. Successive 
generations had very probably passed their lives in 
the tree, working always on the same plan and in 
the same direction. The image of the projected and 
longed-for city—the hope of creating a secure fortress, 
a noble and massive acropolis—had for long years 
sustained the hearts of the courageous citizens. Ah, 
what would life be worth if one laboured only for one’s- 
self! Let us look forward to the future. The first- 
comers who spent their lives in the tree, and from 
their internal reservoir drew and exhausted the juices that excavated 
r 
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I' - X> - 
it, could have enjoyed but for a very brief time a habitation so melan- 
