11^^^

le
;

Measure

of the

Hours
'

Maurice Maeterlinck

CORNELL
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

GIFT OF
Mrs. Andrew
S.

White

*<<QERaRM)(M1EiaMl|V

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

924 052 989 138

Cornell University Library

The
tine

original of

tliis

book

is in

Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

restrictions in
text.

the United States on the use of the

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924052989138

THE MEASURE OF THE HOURS

The Measure
Hours
BY

of the

MAURICE MAETERLINCK
Translated by

Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

1907

URIS LIBRARY
JAN us 1990

HrJ

CorYMGHT, 1905, By Fox, DurniLD and Company

By G.

copykight, 1907, p. Putnam's Sons

Copyright, 1904, 1905,

By Maurice Maeterlinck
Copyright, 1905,
1906,

1907,

By Harper and Brothers

Copyright, 1907,

By Dodd, Mead and Company

Published^ April,
igarj

Note
Of
the essays forming this volume,

some

two or three are now published,

for the
first

in English,

time.

The remainder have

in

appeared, at different times,

newspapers

and magazines, including the Fortnightly

Review, Harper's Magazine, the Atlantic

Monthly,
Quarterly,

the the

Critic,

the

International

Daily Mail, and others.

the author

The thanks of

and

translator

are due to the proprietors and editors of

these periodicals for their leave to republish
in the present

volume.

Contents

THE MEASURE OF THE HOURS

THE MEASURE OF THE

HOURS

SUMMER
tains or

is

the season of happiness. the trees, in the moun-

When, among
by the

sea, the fair

hours of the

year, the hours for

which we have waited

open to us the golden
let

and hoped

since the depths of winter, the

last

hours which at

gates of leisure, return for our delight,

us learn to enjoy them fully, continuously,

voluptuously.

Let us have for these

privi-

leged hours a nobler measure than that into

which we pour the ordinary hours.

gather their dazzling minutes

Let us

in unaccus-

tomed

urns, glorious, transparent

and made

of the very light which they are to contain.

The Measure of
common

the Hours
in the

even as we serve a costly wine not

glass of the daily table, but in the

purest cup of crystal and silver locked in the

sideboard of the banqueting-room.

II

structed that

The measuring we

of time

We
its

are so con-

cannot be

made

conscious

of time and impressed with

joys or sorit,

rows unless we count and weigh

invisible currency.
its

like

an

It takes shape, acquires

its

substance and

value only in compli-

cated forms of apparatus which

we have
apparent;
it

contrived in order to render

and, having no existence in

it

itself,

bor-

rows the

taste, the

perfume and the shape

it.

of the instrument that rules

reason, the minutes ticked off

For

this
little

by our

watches wear a different aspect from those

prolonged by the great hand of the belfry

or cathedral-clock.
It
12

behoves

us, there-

The Measure
fore, not to

of the Hours

be indifferent to the birth of the

as

hours.

Even

we have
upon

glasses

whose

shape, shade and brilliancy vary according

as they are called to carry to our lips

light claret or rich burgundy, cool

hock or

heavy port, or the gladness of champagne,

why

should not our minutes be numbered

in

ways appropriate

to their melancholy, their

It
is fitting,

inertness or their joy?

stance, that

for

in-

our working months and our

winter days, days of bustle, business, hurry

and

restlessness,

should be

strictly,

methodi-

cally,

harshly divided and registered by the

metal wheels and hands and the enamelled

faces of our chimney-clocks, our electric or

pneumatic dial-plates or our small pocketwatches.

Here, majestic time, the master

of gods and men, the immense

human form
in-

of eternity,
sect

is

no more than a stubborn

gnawing mechanically
rest.

at a life devoid

of horizon, sky or

At most,

at the
stroke,

warning moment that precedes the

13

The Measure
during
the

of the Hours
evening
snatched,

too-short

under the lamp, from the cares of hunger

or vanity, will the great copper pendulum of the Dutch or
to

Norman

clock be allowed

make slower and more

impressive the

seconds that go before the steps of grave

night advancing.
Ill

On the

other hand, for our hours no longer

indifferent,

but

really

sombre,

for

our

hours of discouragement, of self-denial, of

sickness

and
let

pain, for the

dead minutes of

our

life,

us regret the time-honoured,

dejected and silent hour-glass of our ancestors.

It is

to-day no

more than an

inactive

symbol on our tombstones or the funeral

hangings of our churches, except where,
fully fallen, it
in
piti-

may

still

be found presiding,

some country

kitchen, over the fastidious

It

cooking of our boiled eggs.

no longer

continues as an instrument of time, though

14

The Measure
it still

of the Hours
scythe,
it

figures, in

company with the

on
its

its

antiquated blazon.
its

And

yet

had
In

merits and

reasons for existence.

the dull, sad days of

cloisters built

human
opened

thought, in the

around the abode of the dead,

their doors

in the convents that

and

windows only

to the

wavering glimmers of

another world, more awful than our own,,

the sand-glass was, for the hours stripped

of their joys, their smiles, their happy surprises

and

their

ornaments,

measure
filled as

whose place no other could have

gracefully.
cision
;

It did

not state time with pre-

it

stifled it in

powdery

particles.

It

was made for counting one by one the sands

of prayer and waiting, of terror and weariness.

The minutes sped by

in dust, isolated

from the circumambient

phial even as the
cell,

life

of the sky, the

in their glass in his

garden and space, secluded

monk was secluded

marking, naming no hour, burying

all in

them

the funeral sand, while the un15

The Measure of
dumb and

the Hours

occupied thoughts that watched over their

incessant fall passed

away with

them to be added

to the ashes of the dead.

IV
Between the glorious banks of flaming
summer,
it

seems best to enjoy the glowing

succession of the hours in the order in

which

marked by the orb itself that showers them upon our leisure. In these
they are
wider,
believe

more open, more

and

lingering days, I

trust only in the great divisions

of light which the sun names to

me with the

warm shadow
which
reflects

of

its

rays on the marble dial

there, in the garden, beside the lake,

and records

in silence, as

though

it

were doing an

insignificant thing, the course

of our worlds through planetary space.

this

By

immediate, this only authentic tranof the

scription

wishes

of

time

which
hour,

directs the stars,

our poor
16

human

The Measure
which
rules our

of the Hours
all

meals and

the

little

actions of our

little lives,

acquires a nobility,
infinity

a direct

and urgent fragrance of

that render vaster and

the dazzling,

more health-giving dewy mornings and almost

of
the
fair

motionless

afternoons

and

immaculate summer.
Unfortunately, the sun-dial, which alone

knew how
is

to follow with dignity the grave

spotless hours,

and luminous march of the

becoming rare and
It
is is

disappearing from

our gardens.

hardly anywhere to be
court,

found save

in the

main

on the stone

terraces, in the mall,

among

the quincunxes
castle,

of some old town, some old

ancient palace,

some
face

where

its gilt figures, its

and

style are

wearing away under the hand

of the very god whose worship they should

perpetuate.

Nevertheless,

Provence and

some of the
mained

Italian market-towns

have

re-

faithful to the celestial clock.

Here

we

often see displayed, on the sunny gable

17

The Measure of

the Hours

of the brightest of old, dilapidated countryhouses, the frescoed circle over

which the
fairy

sunbeams carefully measure their

progress.
less,

And

mottoes, profound or art-

but always significant, because of the

fill

place which they

and the part which they

to blend the

play in a vast
soul

life, strive

human

with

incomprehensible
la justice

phenomena.

"L'heure de

ne sonne pas aux

cadrans de ce monde: the hour of justice

does not strike on the dials of this world,"

says the inscription on the sun-dial of the

church at Tourette-sur-Loup, that extraordinary, that almost African

little

village,

near to where I

live,

which,

amid the

crumbling rocks and clambering aloes and

fig-trees,

resembles a miniature Toledo re-

duced to a skeleton by the sun.

Another

radiant clock-face proudly proclaims

"A

lumine motus" as

its

motto: "I

am moved
an old

by the

light."

"Amydst
i8

y^ flowres, I tell
dial in

y* hours," says

an old marble

The Measure
garden.
surely,
is

of the Hours
prettiest legends,

But one of the

that which Hazlitt discovered one

:

day near Venice

Serenas."

"Horas non numero

nisi

"

'I

count only the hours that are serene,'

"

he adds.
feeling!

"What a bland and care-dispelling

How

the shadows seem to fade

on the

dial-plate as the sky lours

its

and time
progress
that
is

presents only a blank, unless as

is

marked by what

is

joyous and

all

not happy descends into oblivion.

fine lesson is

What

conveyed to the mind to take

its

no note of time but by

benefits, to

watch

only for the smiles and neglect the frowns

of fate, to compose our lives of bright and

gentle moments, turning always to the sunny
side of things

and

letting the rest slip

from
I"

our imaginations, unheeded or forgotten

19

The Measure of

the Hours

The

clock,

the hour-glass, the vanished

clepsydra give abstract hours, without face

or form.

They

are the instruments of the

anaemic time of our indoor rooms, of time

enslaved

and captive; but the sun-dial

reveals to us the real, throbbing

shadow of
in the

the

wing of the great god that hovers

sky.

Around

the marble disk which adorns

the terrace or the crossing of

two wide ave-

nues and which harmonises so well with the

majestic
staircases

and spreading balus-

trades or with the green walls of the thick

quickset hedges,

we

enjoy the fleeting but

undeniable presence of the

beamy
in

hours.

He who
will see

has learnt to descry them

space

them turn by turn touching earth

altar to

and leaning over the mysterious

offer a sacrifice to the

god

ours, but cannot

know.

whom man honHe will see them

advancing

in

diverse
20

and changing gar-

; :

The Measure
ments, crowned with
first,

of the Hours
fruit, flowers

or

dew
visi-

the as yet diaphanous and hardly

ble hours of the

dawn
cruel,

next, their sisters of

noon,

ardent,

resplendent,

almost

implacable; and,
twilight,

finally,

the last hours of

in

slow and sumptuous, delayed

their progress towards approaching night

by the purpling shadow of the

trees.

VI
The
gold.
sun-dial alone
is

worthy

to

measure

the splendour of the months of green and

Like profound happiness,

it

speaks

no word.
as
it

Time marches

over

it

in silence,

passes in silence over the spheres of

space; but the church of the neighbouring

village lends
it

at

moments

its

bronze voice

and nothing

is

so harmonious as the sound

of the bell that strikes a

chord with the

dumb

gesture of

its

shadow marking noon

amid the

sea of blue.

The

sun-dial gives a

The Measure of
centre

the Hours

and successive names to scattered and

All the poetry,
all

nameless joys.

the

delights of the country-side, all the mysteries

of the firmament,

all

the confused

thoughts of the

tall trees that

guard

like a

sacred treasure the coolness which night has

entrusted to their care, all the blissful intensity of the corn-fields, plains

and

hills

abandoned without defence to the devouring magnificence of the sunlight,

all

the
its

indolence of the brook flowing between

gentle banks, the drowsiness of the

pond

covered with drops of sweat formed by the

duck-weed, the satisfaction of the house
that opens,
in
its

white front, windows of

greedy to draw

in the horizon, the scent

the flowers hastening to finish a day of

scorching beauty, the birds singing in the

order of the hours to weave garlands of

gladness for them in the sky
:

all these, to-

gether with thousands of things and thou-

sands of lives that escape our sight, meet

The Measure
and take stock of
this
is

of the Hours
around

their continuance

mirror of time on which the sun, which

but one of the wheels of the huge ma-

chine that vainly subdivides eternity, marks

with a kindly ray the daily journey which

the earth, with
all

that

it

carries,

performs

on the road of the

stars.

23

IMMORTALITY

IMMORTALITY

the new era whereupon we are enterIN ing, and wherein the religions no longer

reply to the great questions of mankind,

one of the problems on which we

cross-

examine ourselves most anxiously

the
life

is

that of

beyond the tomb.

Is

Do

all

things

end at death?
after-life ?

there

an imaginable

Whither do we go and what be-

comes of us?
side of the

What
frail

awaits us on the other

illusion

which we

call

existence ?

At

the

moment when our

heart

stops

beating,

does matter triumph,

or

mind; does eternal

darkness ?

light begin, or endless

Like

all

that exists,

we

are imperishable.

We

cannot conceive that anything should

27

The Measure of
be lost
in

the Hours

the universe.

By

the side of in-

finity, it is

impossible to imagine a state of

nothingness into which an atom of matter

can

fall

and be annihilated.
all is;

All that
is

is

will

be eternally;
that
is

and there

nothing
driven

not.

Otherwise,

we should be
it

to believe that our brain has nothing in

common with
to conceive.

the universe which

strives

We
is

should even have to say

the
it

that

it

works

in the reverse direction to

universe,
is,

which
all,

hardly probable, since

after

perhaps but a sort of reflection

of the universe.

That which appears

to disappear

to perish or, at least,

itself is

and follow upon

the

form and fashion under which we see imperishable matter but

;

we do

not

know with

what

realities these

appearances correspond.

They
is

are the texture of the

bandage which

laid

upon our eyes and which gives them,

the

under
all

pressure

that
life.

blinds

them,
that

the images of our

Remove

Immortality
bandage what remains ?
:

Do we

enter into

the reality that undoubtedly exists beyond ?

Or do

the appearances themselves cease to

exist for

us?
II

That
self

the state of nothingness

is

impossiit-

ble; that, after our death, all subsists in

:

and nothing perishes these are things

that hardly interest us.

The

only point that

is

touches us, in this eternal persistence,

fate of that small part of our life

the

which

used to
existence.

perceive phenomena during our

We

call it

our consciousness or
it

our ego.

This ego, as we conceive

when
its

we

reflect

upon the consequences of

ego
is

de-

struction, this

neither our

mind nor

our body, since

we

recognise that both are

waves that flow away and are renewed inIs it an immovable point which cessantly.
could not be form or substance, for these
are always in evolution, nor
29
life,

which

is

The Measure of
the cause or effect of-

the Hours

form and substance ?

where
dwells. source,

In truth,

it

is

impossible for us to appreit,

hend or

define

to tell

it

When we
we

try to

go back to

its last

find hardly

more than

a succession of

memories, a series of ideas, confused, for

that matter, and unsettled, attached to the

one

instinct

of living

a series of habits of

our sensibility and of conscious or unconscious

reactions

against the

surrounding
the most
is

phenomena.
steadfast

When
of

all is said,

point

that

nebula

our

memory, which seems, on the other hand, to

be a somewhat external, a somewhat accessory faculty and, in any case, one of the
frailest faculties

of our brain, one of those

which disappear the most promptly at the

least disturbance

of our health.

30

Immortality
III
It

matters

not;

that

uncertain,

indisis

cernible, fleeting

and precarious ego

so

much

the centre of our being, interests us

so exclusively that every reality of our life

disappears before this phantom.

It

is

matter of utter indifference

to

us
its

that
sub-

throughout eternity our body or

stance should
glory,

know

every joy and every

undergo the most splendid and detransformations,

lightful

become

flower,
like-

perfume, beauty,

light, air, star;

it is

wise indifferent to us

that our intellect

life

should expand until

it

mixes with the

of
it.

the worlds, understands and

governs

Our

instinct

is

persuaded that

all this will

not affect

us, will give us

no pleasure,

will

not happen

to ourselves, unless that memory

of a few almost always insignificant facts

accompany us and witness those unimaginable joys,

I care

not
31

if

the loftiest, the

The Measure of
eternally living

the Hours
of

freest, the fairest portions

my mind

be

and radiant

in the

supreme

gladnesses: they are no longer mine; I do

not

know them. Death

I

has cut the network

of nerves or memories that connected them

with

know not what

They
are

centre wherein lies

the sensitive point which I feel to be all

myself.

now

set loose, floating in

is

space and time, and their fate

to

as

unknown
Anywithin

me

as that of the farthest stars.

thing that occurs exists for

me
is

only upon
it

condition that I be able to recall

that mysterious being which
I

know not
I turn

where and precisely nowhere, which

like a

mirror about

this

world whose phethey are

nomena take shape only

reflected in
it.

in so far as

IV
Thus our longing
itself

for immortality destroys

itself,

while expressing

since

it is

on

one of the accessory and most transient

33

Immortality
parts of our whole life that
interest of
that, if

we
It

base

all

the

our

after-life.

seems to us

our existence be not continued with

its

the greater part of

pettinesses
it,

drawbacks, of the

and blemishes that characterise

it

nothing will distinguish

it

from that of

other beings; that

will

become a drop

of ignorance in the ocean of the unknown

and
will

that, thenceforth, all that

may

ensue

no longer concern

us.

"What immortality can one promise to men who almost necessarily conceive it in this guise? How can we help it?" asks a puerile, but profound instinct. Any immortality that

does not drag with

it

through

eternity, like the fetters of the convict that

we

were, the strange consciousness formed

during a few years of movement, any immortality that does not bear that indelible
,

mark of our
were not.

identity

is

for us as though

it

Most

of the religions have

understood this and have taken account of

33

The Measure of
time destroys the

the Hours

that instinct which desires and at the

after-life.

same

It is

thus that

the Catholic Church, going back to the

most primitive hopes, promises us not only

the integral preservation of our earthly ego,

but even the resurrection of our

own

flesh.

There

lies

the crux of the riddle.

When
almost

we demand

that this small consciousness,

that this sense of a special ego

childish and, in

any

case,

extraordinarily

limited

probably an infirmity of our actual

intelligence
infinity

should accompany
it,

us into the

of time in order that

are

stand and enjoy

we may underwe not wishing to

Are

perceive an object with the aid of an organ

that
is

not intended to perceive it?

we
in

not asking that our hand should dis-

cover the light or that our eye should take

perfumes?

Are we

not,

on the other
in

hand, acting like a sick

man who,
it

order

to recognise himself, to be quite sure that

he

is

himself, should think

34

necessary to

Immortality
continue his sickness in his health and in
the boundless sequence of his days?

The
accuPic-

comparison, for that matter,

rate than
is

is

more

the habit of comparisons.

ture a blind

man who

is

also paralysed

and

deaf.

He

has been

in this condition

from

his birth

and has

just attained his thirtieth

year.

What

can the hours have embroi-

dered on the imageless web of this poor life ?

The unhappy man must have

the depths of his
recollections, a

gathered

in

memory, for lack of other

of

few wretched sensations of

rest,

heat and cold, of weariness and

more or

less

keen physical sufferings, of

It
is

hunger and

thirst.

probable that

all

human

joys, all

our ideal hopes and dreams

of paradise will be reduced for him to the

confused sense of well-being that follows

the allaying of a pain.

This, then,

is

the

only possible equipment of that consciousness

and that ego.

The
35

intellect,

having

never been invoked from without, will sleep

The Measure
soundly,
theless, the
life to

of the Hours
itself.

knowing nothing of

Neverlittle

poor wretch will have his

which he will cling by bonds as naras

row and eager

piest of

though he were the hapwill

men.

He

dread death; and

the idea of entering into eternity without

carrying with
ries

him the emotions and memo-

of his dark and silent sick-bed will

plunge him into the same despair into which

we

are plunged by the thought of abandon-

ing a life of glory, light and love for the

icy darkness of the

tomb.

Let us now suppose that a miracle suddenly quicken his eyes and ears and reveal
to him,

through the open window at the

his bed, the

head of

dawn

rising over the

in the trees, the

plain, the

song of the birds

murmuring of the wind

of the water against
its

in the leaves

and

banks, the ringing

36

Immortality
of

human

voices

among

the morning

hills.

Let us suppose also that the same miracle,

completing
limbs.
its

work, restore the use of

stretches
his

his

He

rises,

arms

to

that prodigy which as yet for

neither reahty nor

him

possesses

name: the
whole body

light!

He

opens the door, staggers out amidst the

effulgence
all

and

his

dissolves in

these marvels.

He
a sky

enters

upon an

in-

effable life,

upon

whereof no dream

could have given him a foretaste; and, by

a freak which
is

readily admissible in this

sort of cure, health, introducing

him

to this

inconceivable and unintelligible existence,

wipes out

in

him

all

memory

of days past.

What

will be the state of that ego, of

that central focus, the receptacle of all our

sensations, the spot in

which converges
right to our
life,

all

that belongs

in its

own

the

supreme
being,
if

point, the "egotic" point of our

I

may

venture to coin a

word?
re-

Memory

being abolished, will that ego

37

The Measure of
cover within
that
itself

the

Hours
man

a few traces of the

force,

was?

new

the

intellect,

awaking and suddenly displaying an unprecedented activity, what relation will that
intellect

keep up with the

it

inert, dull

germ

whence

has sprung?

At what

corner of

his past will the

man

clutch to continue his

identity?

And

yet will there not survive

within him some sense or instinct, inde-

pendent of the memory, the

I

intellect

and

know not what other faculties, that will make him recognise that it is indeed in him
that

the

liberating
it is

miracle
life

has

been
his

wrought, that
neighbour's,

indeed his

and not

transformed,

irrecognisable,

but substantially the same, that has issued

from the
long

silence

and the darkness to prolight?

Itself in

harmony and

Can we
reflux of

picture the disarray, the flux

and

that bewildered consciousness?

any, idea in

Have we
yester-

what manner the ego of

38

day will unite with the ego of to-day and

Immortality

how

the "egotic" point, the sensitive point

of the personality, the only point which

are anxious to preserve intact, will bear
self in that delirium

we
it-

and that upheaval ?

suffi-

Let us
cient

first

endeavour to reply with

to
this

preciseness

question which

comes within the scope of our actual and

visible life
;

and,

if

we

are unable to do this,

how

can

we hope
his

to solve the other

problem
at the

that presents Itself before every

man

moment of

death?

VI
This sensitive point,
in

which the whole

it

problem
one

is

summed

up, for

is

the only
it is

in question and, except in so far as

is

concerned, immortality

certain

this

mys-

terious point, to which, in the presence of

death,

we

attach so high a value,

we

lose,

strange to say, at any

moment

in life with-

out feeling the least anxiety.

39

Not

only

is

The Measure of
it

the Hours

destroyed nightly in our sleep, but even

in

waking

it is

at the

mercy of a host of
indis-

accidents.
position, a

A
little

wound, a shock, an

few glasses of

alcohol, a little

opium, a
literate
it is
it.

smoke are enough

to obit,

Even when nothing impairs

not constantly perceptible.

effort, in

We

often

need an

turning back upon ourit,

selves to recapture

to

become aware that

is

such or such an event

occurring to us.

At

the least distraction, a happiness passes

beside

us

without touching

us,

without
it

yielding up to us the pleasure which

tains.

con-

One would
it

say that the functions

of the organ by which

bring

we

taste life

and

home

to ourselves are intermittent,

often interrupted or suspended and that the

presence of our ego, except in pain,

is

but a

rapid and perpetual sequence of departures

and

returns.

What

reassures us
it

is

that

we

believe ourselves sure to find

intact

on

awaking, after the wound, the shock or the

40

Immortality
distraction,

whereas we are persuaded, so

feel
it

fragile

do we

to be, that

it is

bound

to disappear for ever in the terrible concus-

sion that separates life

from death.

VII

One foremost

truth,

pending others which

is

the future will no doubt reveal,

these questions of life

that in

and death, our imagAlmost

precedes reason; but

ination has remained very childish.

every elsewhere,
here
it still

it

loiters

over the games of the

itself

earliest ages.

It

surrounds

with the

dreams and the barbarous longings wherewith

it

lulled the hopes

and fears of cave-

dwelling man.

It asks for things that are It

impossible, because they are too small.

claims privileges which,

if

obtained, were

more

to be dreaded than the

most enormous

disasters with

which

nihility threatens us.

Can we

think without shuddering of an

41

The Measure of

the Hours

eternity contained wholly within our infini-

tesimal actual consciousness?

And

behold

how,

in all this,

we obey

the illogical

whims

of what used to be called la folle du logis!

Which

of

us, if

he went to sleep to-night

of awaking in a

in the scientific certainty

hundred years
intact,

as he

is

to-day, with his

body
all

even on condition that he lost

his previous life

memory of

memories not be useless?

which
brief,

^would those

of us

would not welcome that

the

secular sleep with

same confidence

as the

gentle

slumbers of his every night?

Far from

dreading it, would not many hasten to make the trial with eager curiosity ? Should we not see numbers of men assail the dispenser of the fairy sleep with their prayers

and implore as

a favour

what they would

deem
life?

a miraculous prolongation of their

And

yet,

during that sleep,

how
on

much would remain and how much of

themselves

would

they
42

find

again

Immortality
awaking?

What link,

at the

moment when

they closed their eyes, would connect them

with the being that was to awake without memories, unknown, in a

Nevertheless,
their consent

new world?
all

and

their

hopes at the beginning of that long night

would depend upon that

There
is,

non-existing link.

in fact,

between real death and

this sleep

only the difference of that awak-

ening deferred for a century, an awakening

here as alien to him
as the birth
child.

who had gone

to sleep

would be of

a posthumous

VIII

On
make
with

the other hand,

to the question
us,

what answer do we

when

it

has to do not

but with the things that breathe

with us on earth? Are we concerned, for

instance, about the after-life of the animals ?

The most

faithful, affectionate

and

intelli-

gent dog, once dead, becomes- but a repul43

The Measure
sive carcass,
It does not

of the Hours
of.

which we hasten to get rid

even seem possible to us to ask

ourselves
life

if

any part of the already spiritual

in

which we loved
in

him
if

subsist else-

where

our memory, or
It

there be another

world for dogs.

would appear rather

and space should

ridiculous to us that time

preserve preciously, for

all eternity,

among
of

the stars and the boundless mansions of the

sky, the soul of a
five

poor

beast,

made up

or six touching, but very unsophisti-

cated habits and of the longing to eat and

drink, to sleep
in the

warm and to greet manner which we know.

soul,

his kind

Besides,-

what could remain of that

entirely of the

composed

few needs of a rudimentary

body,

when

that

body has ceased

to exist?

Yet by what right do we imagine between

ourselves

and the animal an abyss that does and the animal?

far, so

not exist even between the mineral and the

vegetable, the vegetable

This right to believe ourselves so

44

Immortality
different

from

all

that lives

upon

earth, this

pretension to place ourselves in a category

and a kingdom to which the very gods

whom we
all

have created would not always

:

have access these are what we must

examine.

first

of

IX
It

would be impossible

to set forth all the

paralogisms of our
point which

imagination on the

we

are discussing.

Thus, we

are pretty easily resigned to the dissolution

of our body in the grave.

anxious that
infinity
it

We are not at all

in the

should accompany us

of time.

Upon
it

reflection,

we should
its

even be vexed' were

to escort us with
its

inevitable drawbacks,
ishes

faults.

Its

blemIntend
shall

and

its

absurdities.
is

What we
if It
is

to take with us

our

soul.

But what

we answer

to one

who

asks us

be pos-

sible to conceive that this soul

anything

more than the sum

total of our intellectual

45

The Measure
and moral
faculties,

of the Hours
added,
if

you will

make

full

measure

to

to all those

which

fall

within the jurisdiction of our instinct, our

unconsciousness,

our

subconsciousness ?

Now, when, at the approach of old age, we

see these

same

faculties

become impaired

in either ourselves or others, tress ourselves,

we do

not

dis-

we do

not despair any more

than

we

distress ourselves or despair

when
of

we behold
strength.

the slow decline of our physical

We keep intact our dim hope

It

an

after-life.

seems to us quite natural

that the state of one set of faculties should

depend upon the

state of the others.

Even

when
in a

the former are completely destroyed

being

whom we love, we do not consider

lost

that
his

we have
ego, his

him or

that he has lost

moral personality, of which,

however, nothing remains.

We should not
think that he

mourn

his loss,

we should not
if

was no more,

death preserved those of annihilation.

But,

faculties in their state

46

Immortality
if

we do

not attach a capital importance to

the dissolution of our body in the tomb, or

to the dissolution of our intellectual faculties

during

life,

what

is it

that

we

ask death to

spare and of what unrealisable dream do

we demand

the realisation?

X
In truth,

we

cannot, at least for the

mo-

ment, imagine an acceptable answer to the

question of immortality.
ished ?

Why
on

be aston-

Here

stands

my lamp
;

my

table.

It contains

no mystery

it is

the oldest, the

best

known and

the most familiar object in

it oil,

the house.

I see in
all

a wick, a glass

chimney; and

of this forms light.

The
it,

riddle begins only

this light
is,

when
it

I ask

myself what
I call

whence

comes when
extinguish
it.

where

it

goes

when

Then,

suddenly, around this small object which I

can

lift,

take to pieces and which might

47

The Measure of
have been fashioned by

the

Hours
the riddle

my hands,
upon
us

becomes unfathomable.
table all the

Gather round

my

men

that live
tell

this earth this little

not one will be able to

flame
die at
is

what

which I cause to take birth or to

pleasure.

my

And, should one of

definitions

them venture upon one of those

known

as scientific, every

tion will multiply the

word of the definiunknown and, on

nothing of the
es-

every side, open unexpected doors into endless night.

If

we know

sence, the destiny, the life of a

gleam of

familiar light of which all the elements

were created by ourselves, of which the

source, the proximate causes

and the

effects

are contained within a china bowl,

how

can

we hope

to penetrate the mystery of a life

of which the simplest elements are situated

at millions of years, at

thousands of milintelligence In

lions of leagues

from our

time and space?

48

Immortality

XI
Since humanity began to exist,
it

has not

advanced a single step on the road of the

mystery which
question which
ject

we we

are contemplating.

No

ask ourselves on the sub-

touches,

on

my

side,
is

the sphere in

which our

intelligence

formed and moves.

There

is

perhaps no relation possible or

imaginable between the organ that puts the

question and the reality that ought to reply
to
it.

The most

active

and searching

en-

quiries of late years

have taught us nothing.

soci-

Learned and conscientious psychical

eties,

notably in England, have got together

an imposing collection of irrefutable facts

which prove that the

life

of the spiritual or

nervous being can continue for a certain

time after the death of the material being.

No sincere mind now dreams of

mentary and other evidence
49

denying the

possibility of these facts supported

by docu-

as conclusive

The Measure of
as that

the Hours
our firm-

which serves

as a basis for

est scientific convictions.

But

all this

merely

removes by a few

lines,

by a few hours the

If the ghost of

beginning of the mystery.

a person

whom

I love, clearly recognisable

and apparently so much

alive that I

speak

to It, enter my room to-night at the very minute when life is quitting the body at

a thousand miles
that
Is,

from the spot where

am,

no doubt, very strange, even

as every-

thing

is

strange in a world of which

first

we do
shows

not understand the

at

word but
;

it

most that the

soul, the spirit, the breath,

the nervous and indiscernible force of the

subtlest part of
itself

our matter can disengage

it

from that matter and survive

for an

instant,

even as the flame of a lamp which

we

extinguish sometimes becomes detached

in

from the wick and hovers for a moment

the darkness.
is

Certainly, the
;

phenomenon
to be

an astonishing one

but given the nature

of that spiritual force,

50

we ought

much

Immortality
more astonished
the fulness of
that
it

is

not produced
in

more frequently and

life.

at our pleasure,
it

In any case,
question.

throws
a
to

no

light

upon the

Never has

single one of those

phantasms appeared

have the

least consciousness of a
life,

new

life,

of a supraterrestrial

a life different

from that
whence
it

just

abandoned by the body

emanated.

On

the contrary, the

spiritual life of all of them, at that

moment
rid of
it

when

it

ought to be pure, since

it is

matter, seems greatly inferior to

what

was

when enveloped

in matter.

Most of them,

in a sort of somnambulistic dulness, pursue

mechanically the most insignificant of their

accustomed preoccupations.
its

One

looks for

hat,

which
is

it

has

left

on a chair or table

another

troubled about a small debt or

anxious to

know

the time.
at die

And

all

of
the

them, a

little later,

moment when
I

real after-life

ought to begin, evaporate

ever.
SI

and disappear for

agree that this

The Measure

of the Hours

proves nothing either for or against the

possibihty of the after-life.

We
last

do not

know
first

whether these brief apparitions be the

of the

glimmers of a new or the

present existence.

Perhaps the dead, for

want of a

better, thus use

and turn to

ac-

count the last bond that links them and

makes them
around
to

still

perceptible to our senses.

Perhaps, afterwards, they continue to live

us,

but

fail,

despite all their efforts,

make themselves

recognised or to give

us an idea of their presence, because

we

have not the organ needed to perceive them,

even as
all

our

efforts

would

fail to

give a

man

blind

from

birth the least notion of

light or colour.

In any case,

it is

certain

that the investigations

that

and the labours of

"Borderland" as
left the

new

science of the
it,

the English call

exactly

have

problem

where

it

has been since the begin-

ning of

human

consciousness.

S2

Immortality

XII
In the invincible ignorance, then, in which

we

are,

our imagination has the choice of

destinies.

our eternal

amine the

different

Now, when we possibilities, we

ex-

are

compelled to admit that the most beautiful

are not the least probable.
sis,

A first hypothe-

to be put aside off-hand, without discus-

son, as

we have

seen, in that of absolute

annihilation.

second hypothesis, eagerly

cherished by our blind instincts, promises us

the

more or

less

integral

preservation,

through the

infinity

of time, of our con-

sciousness or our actual ego.

We have also
is

studied this hypothesis, which

little

more
so

plausible than the

first,

but at bottom
that,

narrow,

so

naive,

and puerile

whether for men or for plants and animals,

one sees scarcely a means of finding a reasonable place for
infinite time.
it

in

boundless space and

that, of all

Let us add
S3

our

The Measure
possible destinies,
to be really
it

of the Hours

would be the only one

dreaded and that annihilation

pure and simple would be a thousand times

preferable.

There remains the double hypothesis of

an
after-life

without consciousness, or with

an enlarged and transformed consciousness,

of which that which

we
it

possess to-day can

give us no idea, which

prevents us rather

from conceiving, even as our imperfect eye

prevents us from conceiving any other light

than that which goes from infra-red to

ultra-violet,

whereas

it is

certain that those

probably prodigious lights would dazzle on

every
side,

in the darkest night,

a pupil

shaped differently from ours.

Although double
hypothesis
is

at the

first

view,

the

soon brought back to the

simple question of consciousness.

for instance, as

To

say,

we

are tempted to do, that

an

after-life

without

consciousness
is

is

equivalent to annihilation
54

to settle a priori

Immortality
and without
sciousness
reflection that
is

problem of conchief

which
all

the

and most
have pro-

obscure of
It
is,

the problems that interest us.

as all the metaphysicians

claimed, the most difficult that exists, considering that the object of our knowledge
is

the very thing that

is

striving to

know.

What,
to

then, can that mirror ever facing

itself do,

save reflect

itself indefinitely

and

no purpose?

Nevertheless, in that re-

flection

incapable of emerging

from the

multiplication of itself sleeps the only ray

that

is

able to throw light

is

upon

all
is

the rest.

What

to be done?

There

no other

means of escaping from

than to deny
it,

one's consciousness

to look

upon

it

as

an

organic disease of the

gence, a disease which
to cure

terrestrial

intelli-

we must endeavour

by an

act

which must appear to us

an act of violent and wilful madness, but

which, on the other side of our seeming,
is

probably an act of sanity.

55

The Measure of
XIII
But escape
fatally to
is

the Hours

impossible; and

we

return

prowl around our consciousness

based upon our memory, the most precarious of

all

our

faculties.

It

being evident,

we

say, that

nothing can perish,

we must
life.

needs have lived before our present

But, as

we

are unable to connect our previlife, this cer-

ous existence with our actual

tainty
is

as indifferent to us, passes as far as all the certainties of our later life.

from us

And

here

we

have, before

life

as after

death, the appearance of the

mnemonic

ego,

concerning which
to ask ourselves if

it

behoves us once more

it

what

does during the

really important
itself

few days of

its

activity

is

enough thus to decide, by reference to

alone, the

problem of immortality.

From
and

the fact that

exclusive,

we

enjoy our ego under so

imperfect,
it

special,

fragile

ephemeral a form does

S6

follow that there

Immortality
is

no other mode of
blind,

consciousness,

no other
of

means of enjoying

life?

A nation
because

men
best

bom

to return to the comparison

essential,
it

which becomes

sums up our situation

in the

midst of the

darkness of the worlds, a nation of

blind from their birth, to

men

whom

a solitary

traveller should reveal the joys of the light,

would deny not only that the

sible,

latter

was posfor our-

but even imaginable.

is it

As

selves,

not very nearly certain that

we
our

lack here below,

senses,

among

a thousand other
to

sense superior

that of

mnemonic
fuller

consciousness, in order to have a

and surer enjoyment of our ego?

not be said that

May it

we sometimes

catch

obscure traces or feeble desires of that bud-

ding or atrophied sense, oppressed

case

in

any

and almost suppressed by the

life,

rule of

our terrestrial

which

centralises all the

evolutions of our existence upon the same

sensitive point ?

Are there not

57

certain con-

The Measure of
lessly,

the Hours
however ruth-

fused moments in which,

however

scientifically
its

we may

allow

for egoism pursued to

most remote and

sometakes
Is
it

secret sources, there remains in us

thing absolutely

disinterested

that

pleasure in the happiness of others?

not also possible that the aimless joys of art,

the calm

and deep

satisfaction into

which

we

are plunged by the contemplation of a

beautiful statue, of a perfect building, which

does not belong to

see again,

us,

which we

shall never
desire,

which arouses no sensual

service to us:

which can be of no

is it

not

possible that this satisfaction

may

be the

pale glimmer of a different consciousness

that
filters

through

cranny
If

of

our

mnemonic consciousness?
able to
ness, that

we

are un-

imagine that different consciousis

no reason for denying

it

it.

even believe that

that this

would be wiser

to assert
it.

would be
life

a reason for admitting

in

All our

would be spent
58

the midst of

Immortality
things which
if

we could never have

had been granted

imagined,

our senses, instead of being given to

to us one

us all together,

by one and from year to year.

For that
the
dis-

matter, one of these senses, the sense of

generation,

which awakens only

at

approach of puberty, shows us that the

covery of an unexpected world, the displace-

ment of

all

the axes of our life depends

upon an accident of our organism.

childhood,

During

we

did not suspect the existence

of a whole world of passions, of love's

frenzies

and sorrows which

If

excite

"grown-

up people."

some garbled echo of those

sounds, by chance, happened to reach our

innocent and curious ears,

we

did not suc-

ceed in understanding what manner of fury

or madness was thus seizing hold of our

elders

and we promised

ourselves,

when

the

time came, to be more sensible, until the

day when love unexpectedly appearing

turbed the centre of gravity of
59
all

dis-

our

feel-

The Measure of
ings

the Hours
ideas.

and of most of our

We

see,

therefore, that to imagine or not to imagine

depends upon so

little

that

we have no
which

right to doubt

the possibility of that

we cannot

conceive.

XIV
What
is

keeps and will long

still

keep us

from enjoying the treasures of the universe

the hereditary resignation with which

we tarry in the gloomy prison of our senses. Our imagination, as we lead it to-day, accommodates
captivity.
itself
it

too
is

readily

to

that

True,

the slave of those

it.

senses

which alone feed

But

it

does not
the intuiit

sufficiently cultivate

within

itself

tions
it is

and presentiments which

tell
it

that

kept absurdly captive and that

should

seek outlets even beyond the most resplen-

dent and
itself.

infinite circles
is

which

it

pictures to

It

Important that our imagination

60

Immortality
should say to
itself,

with ever-increasing

seriousness, that the real

world begins thouits

sands of millions of leagues beyond

ambitious and daring dreams.
it

most

Never was

entitled, nay,

bound

to be

more madly
it

reckless than

now.

All that

succeeds in

building and multiplying in the most enor-

mous space and time

conceiving
is

that

it

is

capable of

as nothing

compared with

what

is.

Already the smallest revelations

life

of science in our humble daily

that,
is

teach

it it

even

in this

modest environment,
reality, that
it is

unable to cope with

being

constantly overwhelmed, bewildered, daz-

zled by all the unexpected that

in a stone, a grain

lies

hidden

of
It

salt, a
is

glass of water,

a plant,

an

insect.

already something

to be convinced of this, for that places us in

a state of
to break

mind

that watches every occasion

circle

through the magic

it

of our

blindness ;

persuades us also that

we

can-

not hope to find decisive truths within this

6i

The Measure of
circle,

the Hours
it.

that they all

lie

beyond

Man,

to

maintain his

sense of proportion, has a need

to tell himself at every

moment

that, were;

he suddenly placed amid the

universe, he

realities

of the

would be

exactly comparable

with an ant which, knowing only the nar-

row pathways, the

proaches
should suddenly find

tiny

holes,
its

the

ap-

and horizons of
itself

ant-heap,

floating

on a

straw in the midst of the Atlantic.

the

Pending
left

time

when we
realities

shall

have

prison which prevents us from coming into

touch with the

tion,

beyond our imaginagreater chance of

we

stand a

much

lighting

upon a fragment of truth by imagby

dreams of that imaginaeternity,

ining the most unimaginable things than

striving to lead the
tion,

through the midst of

between

the dikes of logic

and of actual

possibilities.

Let us therefore
presents
eyes the
itself,

try,

whenever a new dream

to snatch

from before our

life.

bandage of our earthly

62

Let us

Immortality
say to ourselves that,
bilities

among

all

the possi-

which the universe

still

hides from

us,

one of the

easiest to realise,

one of the

most probable, the

least
bility

least ambitious
is

and the

disconcerting

certainly

the possi-

of enjoying an existence

much more
and secure

spacious, lofty, perfect, durable

than that which

consciousness.

is

offered to us by our actual

this

Admitting

possibility

and

there are few as probable

is,

the prob-

lem of our immortality

solved.
It

in

principle,

now becomes
its

question of

grasping or foreseeing

ways and, amid

the circumstances that interest us the most,

of knowing what part of our intellectual

and moral acquirements

eternal

will pass into

our

and universal

life.

This
;

is

not the

work of to-day or to-morrow but it would need no incredible miracle to make it the work of some other
day.
.

63

THE GODS OF WAR

THE GODS OF WAR

WAR
that
is

ever offers a magnificent theme

for the meditations of

incessantly renewed.

men and one

remains
cerinit,

It

tain, alas, that

most of our

efforts

and

ventions are always converging towards

making of

it

a sort of diabolical mirror in

civilisation
is

which the progress of our

flected upside
I

re-

down.
it

propose to-day to look at

in

from only

one point of view,

order once again to

establish the fact that the

more we triumph

over the unknown forces the more we yield

to them.

No

sooner have

we

perceived in

the obscurity or the apparent sleep of nature

new glimmer, a new source of energy than we often become its victims and nearly
a
67

The Measure
always
to
its

of the Hours
is

slaves.

It

as though, thinking

free

ourselves,

we
it

freed
is

formidin

able

enemies.

True

that,

the

long run, those enemies end by allowing

themselves to be led and render us services

wherewith we could no longer dispense.

But hardly has one of them made

its

sub-

mission before, in the very act of passing

under the yoke,

an
infinitely

it

places us on the track of

;

more dangerous adversary and more and more

glori-

thus our fate becomes

ous and more and more uncertain.

over,

Moresome

among

these

adversaries are

that seem quite indomitable.

But perhaps

they remain refractory only because they

know

better than the others

how

to appeal

to those evil instincts of our heart

which

delay by

many

centuries the conquests of

our intelligence.

68

The Gods
II

of

War

This

is

notably the case with the majority

of the inventions that relate to war.

We
his-

have seen

this in recent

monstrous

conflicts.

For the
tory,

first

time since the beginning of

entirely

new

forces,

mature at

last,

have emerged from the darkness of

a long

period of experiment and probation and

come
field.

to take the place of

men on

the battlestill

Until the late wars, these forces

hung back, held themselves aloof and acted

only from afar.
sert themselves;

They were

reluctant to asstill

and there was

some

connection between their mysterious action

and the work of our own hands.

range of the
rifle

The

was not greater than that

for-

of our eye; and the destructive energy of

the

most murderous gun, of the most

still

midable explosive
proportions.

preserved

human
over-

To-day,

we

are

whelmed, we have

definitely abdicated,
69

our

The Measure
reign
is

of the Hours
us, as so

ended; and behold

many
mon-

grains of sand, at the mercy of the

strous

and enigmatic powers whose aid we

have dared to invoke.

Ill
It
is

true that the part played

by man

in

battle

was never preponderating or

in the

decisive.

Already
ties

days of Homer, the divini-

of

Olympus mingled with mortals

in their
invisi-

on the plains of Troy and, wrapped

silvery cloud,

which rendered them

ble without
tected,

hampering

their action, pro-

dominated or struck terror into the

warriors.

But these

divinities

had a limited
Their
interre-

power and a limited mystery.

vention,

although

superhuman,

still

flected the

form and psychology of man.

narrow
orbit

Their
of

secrets revolved in the

our

own

secrets.

The

heaven

from which they issued was the heaven of

70

The Gods

of

War
sorlittle juster,

our conception; their passions, their

rows, their thoughts were but
loftier or

purer than our own.

fell

Then,

as

man

developed, as illusion

from him,

as his consciousness increased

and the world

stood more plainly revealed, the gods that

went with him became

greater, although

more
scure.

distant; mightier,

though more ob-

With

his increase of

knowledge and and extended

comprehension, the unknown flooded his

domain and,
;

as he organised

his armies, perfected his his

weapops and, with

mastered
natural

growing

science,

forces, so

do we

find the fortune of battle

ignoring the captain and heeding only the

group of undecipherable laws which we

term chance, or hazard, or destiny.
sider, for instance, the

Con-

admirable picture, so

palpably true to

life,

which Tolstoi draws

of the battle of Borodino or the Moskowa,

a type of one of the great battles of the
pire.

Emand

The

two

chiefs,
71

Kutusoff

The Measure

of the Hours

Napoleon, are so far away from the scene

that they perceive only the

most

insignifi-

cant details; they

know hardly aught of

Kutusoff, like the
is, is

what

is

happening.

good

Sclavonic fatalist that he

force of circumstance."
a hovel,

aware of "the

Sprawling outside

on a bench over which a carpet has

been spread, the unwieldy, one-eyed Russian drowsily awaits the result, giving

no

orders, content to say

"Yes" or "No"

to the

suggestions that reach him.

Napoleon, on

the other hand, believes himself able to gov-

ern events of which he

ness.

is

not even the wit-

He

has dictated the arrangements of

the battle
the very

on the night before; and, from

onslaught, owing to that same

first

"force of circumstance" to which Kutusoff

pins his faith, not one of these arrange-

ments has been or could have been carried

into effect.

But he

clings

none the

less to

the imaginary plan which reality has shattered; he believes that he

72
is

issuing orders,


The Gods
whereas, in truth, he
is

of

War

merely following

and that too

late

the mandates of chance

that everywhere arrive in advance of his

haggard, hysterical messengers.

And
on

the

battle pursues the course that nature has.

traced for

it,

like the river that flows

its

way without heeding

on
its

the cries of the

men

banks.

IV

And

yet Napoleon, of

all

the generals of

our later wars, remains the only one

preserved the semblance of
tion.

who

human

direc-

The
still

external forces that seconded and

already dominated the efforts of his troops

were

in their cradle.

But, in our day,

what could he do?

Would

he be able to
influ-

recapture one hundredth part of the

ence which he was able to exercise on the

fate of battles ? For, to-day, the children of

mystery have emerged from childhood the

;

73

The Measure of
our
lines

the Hours

gods are other that press on our ranks, break

and

scatter our squadrons, sink

fortresses.

our

ships

and wreck our

These gods
issue

have no longer a human shape; they

from

primitive chaos, far beyond the

all their

home
laws,

of their predecessors; and

their power, their intentions

must be sought

outside

the

circle

of our

own

life,

on

the other face of our intelligent sphere, in a

world that

is

closely sealed, the

world most
our species

hostile of all to the destinies of

the raw, formless world of inert matter.

And
us,

it

is

to this blind

and frightful unin

known, which has nothing

common with

which obeys impulses and commands as

incomprehensible as those which govern the

most fabulously distant

impenetrable,

stars;

it

is

to this

irresistible

energy that

we
is

confide the exclusive attribute of

what

highest in the form of life which

we

are

alone to represent in this world

undefinable monsters that
74

it is

to these

we

entrust the

The Gods
right
just.
.

of

War
from the un-

almost divine mission of establishing the

and separating the

.

just

What

are the powers to which

we have
I

thus abandoned our specific privileges?

think at times of a

man whose
is

eyes should

be able to discern what

us,

floating

around

able to distinguish all the population

this ether

of

which our glances assure us

to be transparent

and empty, even

as the

blind, did not other senses undeceive them,

might hold the darkness to be empty that

fastens

upon

thier brow.

Suppose such a

man

to pierce the quicksilver of this crystal

sphere which

we

inhabit

and which to
face,

us reflects only our

gestures
that,

own

our

own

and our own thoughts.

Imagine

one day, passing beyond the appear-

ances that imprison us,

we were

to attain

at last the essential realities

75

and that the

The Measure
invisible which,
fells

of the Hours
side, confines us,

on every

us and

lifts us,

ordains our retreat, our

pause and our advance were suddenly to

strip the

covering from the immense, the

in

awful,

the inconceivable images that,

space,

some hollow of

must inevitably be

borne by the phenomena and laws of nature

whereof we are the

dream;
tell

frail playthings.

Nor

should this be looked on merely as a poet's

it is

now

that

we dream, when we
forget so readily

ourselves that these laws have neither

face nor form,

their

when we

omnipotent and indefatigable pres;

ence

we are now dreaming the puny dream of human illusion, whereas then we should
enter the eternal truth of the life without
limit in

which our own

life is

bathed.
it

The
a

spectacle

would be appalling:

would be
all

revelation that

would
it

terrify

human
its

energy and paralyse

at the roots of

nothingness. Consider, for instance,

the

among

many

illusory

triumphs of our blindness,

76

The Gods
two
fleets

of

War

that prepare for battle.

few

thousand men, as imperceptible, as

in their relation to the forces

helpless,

brought into

play, as a handful of ants in a virgin forest

few thousand men

flatter

themselves that

they have enslaved and turned to their purpose, to serve an idea entirely foreign to the
universe, the

most immeasurable and the

most dangerous of its laws.

Try

to provide

each of these laws with an aspect, a physiog-

nomy
to let

proportionate and appropriate to

its

its

power and

functions

And,

if

you fear
is

your mind dwell on what

impos-

sible and unimaginable, leave out of count

the profoundest, the most august of these

laws,

among

others

that of gravitation,
as well as the sea that

which the ships obey

bears them and the earth that bears the sea

and the planets that support the

earth.

You

would have
in

to seek so far, in such solitudes,

such

infinities,

beyond such
it

stars, for the

elements that compose

17

that the wildest

The Measure of
dream would pause
whole universe
suffice to

the Hours
nor the

in helplessness,

lend a mask.

VI
Let
us, therefore,

take those laws alone

if

which are more limited,

there be any

that have limits; those which are nearer

to us, if there be

any that are near.

Let

us take only the laws which these ships

imagine to be submissively confined

flanks: the laws
cially

in their

which we regard as espemonstrous form, what

docile

and the daughters of our

achievement.
gigantic

What

shadow

shall

we

attribute, to take

one instance alone, to the power of explosives,

those recent and supreme gods,

just dethroned, in the temples

which have
of war,
all

the gods of the past ?

With what
?

family of terrors, what unforeseen group of

mysteries shall

we

connect them

Melinite,

dynamite, panclastite, cordite and roburite,

78

The Gods
lyddite
spectres,

of

War
ye indescribable

and

ballistite,

by whose

side the old black

pow-

der that struck terror into our fathers and

even the mighty thunderbolt, once held the

most awful symbol of divine anger, become mere gossipy, good-natured old women, a
little

ready to

strike,

perhaps, but almost

:

inoffensive, almost
less secrets

maternal of your count-

not even the most superficial has

been laid bare; and the chemist

who comis

poses your slumber, even as the engineer

or artilleryman

who awakens

you,

in total

ignorance of your nature, your origin, your

soul, the springs of

your incredible bound

and the eternal laws which you so suddenly

obey!

Are you

the result of things im-

prisoned since the beginning of time; are

you the gleaming transfiguration of death,

the awful gladness of the palpitating void; are you eruption of hatred or excess of joy?

Are you

new form of
79

life

and so ardent

that you consume in a second the patience

The Measure of
of twenty centuries ?

the Hours
a flame

Are you

from

the enigma of the worlds that has found a

fissure in the walls

of silence that enclose

it

Are you an audacious loan from the

reserve

of energy that supports our earth in space?

Do you,

for that unequalled

bound of yours

towards a new destiny, gather up, in the

twinkling of an eye,
all all

that has been stored,

that has been gathered

and prepared

in

the secret of rocks and seas and mountains ?

Are you

soul or matter or a third state

to life?

still

unknown

Whence do you
continent,

derive
rest

your destructive passion,

the lever that splits a

where do you

whence

does the impetus depart that exceeds the

zone of the

stars

whereon the

earth, your

mother, exercises her will?

To
who

all these

questions the

man

of science

creates

you will reply gravely that your

force "is due to the sudden production, of a

great volume of gas in a space too confined

to contain
it

beneath the atmospheric pres80

The Gods
sure."

of

War
is

All

is

now

explained, all

clear.

We attain at once the very

and here, as
in all things,
.

depths of truth
exactly

know

how

matters stand.

8i

OUR SOCIAL DUTY

OUR SOCIAL DUTY

LET

us start fairly with the great truth

for those
certain duty,

who

possess there
is

is

only one

which

to strip themselves of

what they have, so

nothing.

as to bring themselves

into the condition of the

It
is

mass that possesses

understood, in every clear-

thinking conscience, that no more imperative

duty

exists

but, at the

same

time,

it is

admitted that
is

this duty, for lack

of courage,

impossible of accomplishment.

For the

rest, in

the heroic history of the duties, even

at the

most ardent periods, even

at the

beginning of Christianity and in the majority

of the religious orders that made a

is

special cult of poverty, this

perhaps the

only duty that has never been completely

8s


The Measure of
fulfilled.

the

Hours
when

It

behoves

us,

therefore,

considering our subsidiary duties, to remem-

ber that the essential one has been knowingly evaded.

Let

this truth

govern

us.

Let us not forget that we are speaking

its

in

shadow and that our

boldest, our utmost

steps will never lead us to the point at

which

we ought

to

have been from the

first.

II Since
it

appears that

we have

here to do

with an absolute impossibility before which

it

were

idle to

make any

further display of

astonishment, let us accept

human

nature as

we

find

it.

Let

us, therefore,

seek on other

roads than the one direct road

seeing that
it

we have
is

not the strength to travel by

that which, in the absence of this strength, able to nourish our conscience.

There

are thus, not to speak of the great question,

two or three others which well-disposed

86

Our
What are we
society ?

Social

Duty

hearts are constantly setting to themselves.

to

do

in the actual state

of our

Must we side, a priori, systematically, with those who are disorganising it, or join the camp of those who are struggling
to maintain
its

economy?

Is

it

wiser not

to bind one's choice, to defend by turns that

which seems reasonable and opportune

either party?
It
is

in

certain that a sincere

conscience can find, here or there, the where-

withal to satisfy
reproaches.
this choice

its
is

activity or to lull

its

That

why,

in the presence

of

which to-day becomes incumbent

intelligence,
it

upon every upright

is

not

unprofitable to weigh the pro and the contra

more simply than

and rather
in the

after our usual fashion

manner of the unbiased

denizen of some neighbouring planet.

87

The Measure of
III

the Hours

Let us not resume

objections,

all

the

traditional

but only those which can be

seriously defended.

We are first confronted

with the oldest of them, which maintains

that inequality
is

inevitable, being in accord-

ance with the laws of nature.

This

is

true

but the

human

race appears not improbably

created to raise itself above certain of the

laws of nature.
imperilled if
it

Its

very existence would be

its

abandoned

intention to
It
is

surmount a number of these laws.

in

accordance with

its

particular nature to
its

obey other laws than those of

nature and the
rest.

animal
this ob-

Moreover,

jection has long been classed

among

those

whose

principle

is

untenable and would lead

to the massacre of the weak, the sick, the

old and so forth.

We

are next told that

it is

right, in

order

to hasten the triumph of justice, that the

Our
best

Social

Duty

among

us should not prematurely strip

effi-

themselves of their arms, the most

cacious of which are exactly wealth and

leisure.

Here

the necessity of the great

sacrifice is fairly well recognised,

and only

the question of

its

opportuneness remains.
it

We

agree, provided that

be well under-

stood that this wealth and leisure serve

solely to hasten the steps of justice.

Another conservative argument worthy of

attention declares that, man's
to avoid violence
first

duty being
it is

and bloodshed,

indis-

pensable that the social evolution should not

be too rapid, that

it is

it

should ripen slowly, that

it

important to temper

while the mass

is

being enlightened and borne gradually

and

^without serious upheavals towards a

liberty
this

and a fulness of possessions which,

This again

at

moment, would unchain only its worst

is

instincts.

true ; nevertheless,

it

would be

interesting to calculate, since

we

can reach the best only through the bad,

89

The Measure of
whether the
evils

the Hours

of a sudden, radical and

bloody revolution outweigh those which are

perpetuated in the slower evolution. It were
well to ask ourselves whether there be not an

advantage

in acting

with

all

speed; whether,

when

all is told,

the suffering of those

who
to-

now

wait for justice be not more serious

class

than that which the privileged

of

day would have to undergo for the space of

some weeks or months.

to forget that the

We are too ready

but infinitely more

headsmen of misery are

less noisy, less theatrical,

numerous, cruel and active than those of the

most

terrible revolutions.

IV

We come at length to the last

we
are told, has for

and perhaps

the most disturbing argument: humanity,

more than

a century

been passing through the most fruitful and

victorious, probably the climacteric years of
go

Our
its

Social

Duty
consider
its its

destiny.

It seems, if

we

past,

to be in the decisive phase of

evolution.

One would
that
It
is it is

think,

from

certain indications,
its

nigh upon attaining

apogee.

traversing a period of inspiration whereis

with none other

pared.

historically to be

com-

A trifle, a last effort, a flash of light

shall connect or emphasise the dis-

which

coveries, the intuitions scattered or held in

suspense alone separates

the great mysteries.
It

it,

perhaps, from

has lately touched

upon problems whose

solution, at the cost

is

of the hereditary enemy, that

of the great
universe,

unknown phenomenon of
would probably render
fices

the

useless all the sacriIs

it

which

justice

demands of men.

not

dangerous to stop

this flight, to disturb this

precious, precarious

and supreme minute?

is

Admitting even that what

longer be
it is

gained can no

lost, as in

the earlier upheavals,

nevertheless to be feared lest the vast

disorganisation required by equity should

91

The Measure
and
it is

of the Hours

put an abrupt end to this happy period;

not sure but that
its

reappearance

might be long delayed,

the laws which

preside over the inspiration of the genius

of the race being as capricious, as unstable

as those

which preside over the inspiration

of the genius of the individual.

This

is,

as I

have

said,

perhaps the most

disquieting

argument.
it

But there

is

no

doubt that
tance
to
a

attaches too great an impor-

somewhat uncertain danger.

Moreover, prodigious compensations would

attend this brief interruption of the victory

of humanity.

Can we

foresee

what

will

happen when the human race

which

as a

whole

will be taking part in the intellectual labour

is

the labour proper to our species?

To-day, hardly one brain in ten thousand

exists in conditions entirely

favourable to

92

Our
its

Social
is,

Duty
at this

activity.

There

moment,

monstrous waste of

spiritual force.

Idle-

ness at the top depresses as

many mental
anni-

energies as excess of
hilates below.
it

manual labour

It is incontestable that,
all

when

shall

be given to

men

to apply them-

selves to the task at present reserved for a

few favourites of chance, humanity

crease a

will in-

thousandfold

its

prospects

of

attaining the great mysterious aim.

Here,

I think,

we have

the best of the

pro and the contra, the most reasonable

reasons that can be invoked by those
are in no hurry to end the matter.

who

In the

midst of these reasons stands the huge

monolith of
to let
it

injustice.
itself.

There

is

no need

defend
limits

It oppresses con-

sciences,

intelligences.

Wherefore

there can be no question of not destroying

it;

all

that

is
it is

asked of those

who would
have
been

overthrow
that,

a few years of patience, so

when

its

surroundings
9i

The Measure
cleared,
its fall

of the Hours
entail

may

fewer

disasters.

Are we

to grant these years?

And

which

among

these arguments in favour of haste

or of waiting would be the object of the

most straightforward choice?

VI

Do

the pleas for a few years of respite

sufficient?

appear to you

They
it

are pre-

carious enough; but, even so,

would not

be fair to condemn them without considering the problem from a higher standpoint

than that of pure reason.

This point must

always be sought as soon as

with questions that
perience.
It

we have to do go beyond human exeasily

might

be maintained,

for instance, that the choice

would not be

the same for

all.

The

race,

which probably
its

has an

infinite

consciousness of

destinies

which no individual can grasp, would have

very wisely apportioned
94

among men

the

Our
parts that suit
its

Social

Duty
drama of

them

in the lofty

evolution.

For reasons which we do not

it is

always understand,

doubtless necessary

that the race should progress slowly: that

is

why

the enormous mass of

it

its

body

at-

taches

to the past and the present;

and

very upright intelligences

within this mass, even as

may be comprised
it is

possible for
it.

greatly inferior minds to escape from

Whether

there be satisfaction or unselfish

discontent on the side of the darkness or of

the light matters

tion

little; it is

often a ques-

of predestination and the distribu-

tion of characters rather than of enquiry.

However

this

may

be, for us,

whose reason

already judges the weakness of the argu-

ments of the

past,

it

would be a

fresh

motive for impatience.

addition,
its

Let us admit, in

very plausible force.

The

fact,
is

therefore, that to-day does not satisfy us

enough to make

it

our duty, our organic

duty, so tP speak, to destroy all that sup95

The Measure
ports
it,

of the Hours

arrival

make ready for the of to-morrow. Even if we were to

in

order to

perceive very clearly the dangers and draw-

backs of too prompt an evolution,

requisite, in
fulfil

it

is

order that

we should we should we
it

loyally

the function assigned to us

by the
take no

genius of the race, that

notice of any patience, any circumspection.

In the social atmosphere,

represent the
like the inert

oxygen:
azote,

if

we behave

in

we

betray the mission which nature

this, in

has entrusted to us; and

the scale
is

of the crimes that remain to

us,

the

gravest and most unpardonable of treasons.

It
is

not ours to preoccupy our minds with

the often grievous consequences of our haste

this
is

not written in our part, and to take

account

of

it

would be

to

add

to that part
in

discordant words

which are not

the

authentic text dictated by nature.

Humanity

has appointed us to gather that which stands

on the horizon.

It

has given us instructions

96

Our
which
it

Social

Duty
It

does not behove us to discuss.

its

distributes

forces as

it

thinks right.

At
us,

every cross-way on the road that leads to

the future,
it

has placed, against each of

ten thousand

men

to

guard the past

let

us

therefore have no fear lest the fairest towers

of former days be insufficiently defended.

We
this

are only too naturally inclined to tem-

porise, to
is

shed tears over inevitable ruins:

the greatest of our trespasses.

The

least that the

most timid among us can do

not to add to the immense

and
But
let

already they are verynear committing

treachery

is

deadweight

which

nature

drags

along.

the others follow blindly the inmost

impulse of the power that urges them on.

Even

if their

reason were to approve none

in

of the extreme measures

part, let

which they take

their

them

act
all

and hope beyond

reason; for in
call

things, because of the

of the earth,

we must aim higher than we

aspire to attain.
97

the object which

The Measure of
VII
Let us not fear
lest

the

Hours

we be drawn
however
just,

too far;

and

let

no

reflection,

break or

temper our ardour.

Our

future excesses are

essential to the equilibrium

of

life.

There

are

men enough about

whose most
fires

us whose exclusive
it
is

duty,

precise mission

to

extinguish the

which we kindle.

Let us
our

go always to the most extreme

limits of

thoughts, our hopes and our justice.

Let

us not persuade ourselves that these efforts are incumbent only

this
is

upon the best of us:

not true and the humblest

us that foresee the coming of a

among dawn which

it

they do not understand must await

at the

very summit of themselves.

Their presence
will
fill

on these intermediary tops

living substance the

with

dangerous intervals be-

tween the

first

heights and the last and will

maintain the indispensable communications

between the vanguard and the mass.

98

Our

Social

Duty
in-

Let us think sometimes of the great

visible ship that carries

our human destinies

upon

eternity.

Like the vessels of our con-

fined oceans, she has her sails

last.

and her

bal-

The

fear that she

may pitch
is

or roll on
in-

leaving the roadstead

no reason for

creasing the weight of the ballast by stowing

the fair, white sails in the depths of the

hold.
side

They were not woven

to

moulder

by

side with cobble-stones in the dark.

Ballast exists everywhere: all the pebbles

of the harbour,
will serve for

all

the sand on the beach

it.

But

sails

are rare and

is

precious things: their place

not in the

murk of
tall

the well, but amid the light of the

masts, where they will collect the winds

of space.

VIII
Let us not say to ourselves that the best
truth

always

lies

in

moderation,

in

the

decent average.

This would perhaps be so

99

The Measure of
if

the Hours

men did not think, did not hope upon a much lower plane than is needThat is why it behoves the others to ful.
the majority of

think and hope upon a higher plane than

seems reasonable.

The

average, the decent

moderation of to-day will be the leasthuman

of things to-morrow.

At

the time of the

Spanish Inquisition, the opinion of good

sense

and of the

just

medium was

certainly

that people ought not to burn too large a

number of

heretics; extreme

and unreasonthat they

able opinion obviously

demanded
all.

should burn none at

It

is

the same

to-day with the question of marriage, of

love, of religion, of criminal justice

and

so

on.

Has not mankind yet lived

it is

long enough

to realise that

always the extreme idea,

that

is

the highest idea, the idea at the

is

summit of thought, that

right?

At

the

present moment, the most reasonable opinion on the subject of our social question
invites us to

do

all

that

we can

gradually

Our
to

Social

Duty
and
dis-

dimmish

inevitable inequalities

tribute happiness

more
of

equitably.

Extreme

opinion demands instantly integral division,

the

suppression

property,

obligatory

labour and the

rest.

We
will

do not yet know

it

how
is

these

demands

be realised; but

already quite certain that very simple

circumstances will one day

make them

ap-

pear as natural as the suppression of the

right of primogeniture or of the privileges

of the nobility.

It

is

important, in these

questions of the duration of a species

and

not of a people or an individual, that

we

should not limit ourselves to the experience

of history.
denies

Anything that
in

it

confirms or
circle.

moves

an insignificant

The
our

truth, in this case, lies

much

less

in

reason, which
past,

is

always turned towards the

than

in

our imagination, which sees

farther than the future.

10

The Measure of
IX
Let us reason, then,
experience.

the Hours

strive to soar

above

This

is

easy for young people

but

it is

salutary that ripe age

and old age

should learn to raise themselves to the

luminous ignorance of youth.

We

should

guard beforehand, as the years

pass, against

the dangers which our confidence in the race

must run because of the great number of

malignant
in
it.

men whom we have

and to hope
as

encountered
of
all,

Let us continue,
to love

in spite

to

act,

though we
This

had
ideal

to
is

do with an

ideal humanity.

only a vaster reality than that

which we behold.
viduals

The

failings of indi-

no more impair the general purity

sur-

and innocence than the waves on the

face,

according to the aeronauts,

a certain height, trouble the

when

seen

from

profound

limpidity of the sea.

102

Our

Social

Duty

X
Let us
listen
it

only to the experience that

is

urges us on;

always higher than that

which throws or keeps us back.

not turn us towards the future.

Let us

reject all the counsels of the past that

do
is

This

what was admirably understood, perhaps

for the
first

time in history, by certain

;

of the French Revolution

this revolution
est
is

and that

is

men why
this
all

the one that did the greatlasting things.

and the most

Here

experience teaches us that, contrary to

that occurs in the affairs of daily

life, it is

above

all

important to destroy.

In every
diffi-

social progress, the great

cult

and the only

work

is

the destruction of the past.

We
shall

need not be anxious about what we

place in the stead of the ruins.

The

force

of things and of
rebuilding.
struct;
It
is

life will

undertake the

but too eager to recon-

and we should not be doing well

103

The Measure of
to aid
it

the Hours
Let
us,

in its precipitate task.

therefore, not hesitate to

structive

employ our
:

de-

powers even to excess nine-tenths

is

of the violence of our blows

lost

amid

the inertness of the mass, even as the stroke

of the heaviest
large stone

hammer

is

dispersed in a

and becomes, so

to speak, imper-

ceptible to a child that holds the stone in

its

hand.

XI
And
fast.
let

us not fear lest

If, at certain

hours,

we should go too we seem to be

rushing at a headlong and dangerous pace,

this
is

to counterbalance unjustifiable delost

lays

and to make up for time

during

centuries of inactivity.

The

evolution of

our world continues during these periods

of inertia
;

and

it is

probably necessary that

humanity should have reached a certain determined point of

its

ascent at the

moment
cer-

of a certain sidereal phenomenon, of a

104

Our

Social

Duty

tain obscure crisis of the planet, or even

of the birth of a certain man.

instinct

It

is

the

of

the

race

that

decides

these
if

matters,

it is its

destiny that speaks; and,

this instinct or this destiny

be wrong,
is

it is

not for us to interfere

for there

nothing
its

above
error.

it

or above ourselves to correct

lOS

OUR ANXIOUS MORALITY

OUR ANXIOUS MORALITY

I

VI7"E
~ ^
tion

have arrived

at a stage of

human
por-

evolution that must be almost unin

precedented

history.

of mankind

and

A
just

large

that portion

which corresponds with the part that has

hitherto created the events of which

we

know with some

certainty

is
it

gradually

forsaking the religion in which

for nearly twenty centuries.

has lived

For
thing.

a religion to
It

become

extinct

is

no new

must have happened more than

once in the night of time; and the annalists

of the end of the

Roman Empire make

But,

us assist at the death of paganism.

until

now, men passed from a crumbling

temple into one that was building; they

109

The Measure
left

of the Hours

one religion to enter another; whereas

are abandoning ours to go nowhither.
is

we

That

new phenomenon, with the known consequences, wherein we live.

the

un-

II
It
is

not necessary to recall the fact that

religions
ity

have always, through their moraltheir promises

and

extending beyond

the tomb, exercised an enormous influence

upon men's happiness, although we have

seen
as

and very important paganism provided

some
^which

ones, such

neither those

promises nor
called.
ises
first

any morality properly so

will not speak of the

We

prom-

of our

own

religion, for they are the

to perish with the faith, whereas

still

we

are

living in the

monuments

erected by

the morality born of that departing faith.

But we

feel that, in spite

of the supports

of habit, these monuments are yawning

no

Our Anxious Morality

over bur heads and that already,
places,
in

many
its

we

are shelterless under an unfore-

seen heaven that has ceased to give

orders.

Thus we

are assisting at the

more

or less unconscious and feverish elaboration of a morality that

is

premature, be-

cause

we

feel

it

to be indispensable,

made

up of remnants gathered from the

conclusions borrowed
sense, of a

past, of

from ordinary good

few laws half perceived by science

and, lastly, of certain extreme intuitions of

our bewildered intelligence, which returns,

by a circuitous road through a new mystery,

to old-time virtues
is

which good sense alone

It

not

sufficient to sustain.

may

be

inter-

esting to try to seize the

first reflexes

of that

The hour seems to be striking will ask themselves whether, many at which
elaboration.

by continuing to practise a lofty and noble

morality
in

an environment that obeys other

laws, they be not disarming themselves too

artlessly

and playing the ungrateful part of

III

The Measure of
dupes.
that
still

the Hours
if

They wish
attach

to

know

the motives

them

to the older virtues are

not

merely

sentimental,

traditional

and

illusionary;

and they seek somewhat vainly

yet lend them.

within themselves for the supports which

reason

may

Ill

Placing on one side the

in

artificial

heaven

which those who remain faithful to the

shelter,

religious certainties take

we

find

that the upper currents of civilised

ity

human-

waver, seemingly, between two contrary

doctrines.

For that matter, these two

have through

parallel, but inverse doctrines

all

time, like hostile streams, crossed the

fields

of

human

morality.

But

their

bed
as

was never
now.

so clearly, so rigidly
in other

dug out

That which

days was no
instinctive

more than altruism and egoism

112

and vague, with waves that often mingled,

Our Anxious Morality

has of late become altruism and egoism
absolute and systematic.

At

their sources,
shifted, stand

which are not renewed, but

:

two men of genius Tolstoi and Nietzsche.

But, as I have said,
these
ethics.
it is

only seemingly that

two doctrines divide the world of

The
is

real

drama of
Lost

the

modern

conscience

not enacted at either of these

in

too extreme points.

space, they

mark

little

more than two

illusive goals,

which nobody dreams of

attaining.

One

of

these doctrines flows violently back towards

a past that never existed in the shape in

which that doctrine pictures

it;

the other

ripples cruelly towards a future

is

which there
on

nothing to

foretell.

Between these two

it

dreams, which envelop and go beyond

every
side, passes the reality

of which they In this

reality,

have failed to take account.

whereof each of us
himself,
it

carries the

image within

behoves us to study the forma-

tion of the morality

on which our latter-day

113

The Measure of
life rests.

the Hours

Need

add

that,

ing the term "morality," I do not

when employmean to

speak of the practices of daily existence,

which spring from custom and fashion, but

of the great laws that determine the inner

man?

IV
Our
morality
is

formed

in

our conscious

or unconscious reason, which,

point of view,
regions.

from

this

may

be divided into three

lies

Right at the bottom

the

heaviest, the densest

and the most general,

which we
little

will call

"common

sense."

A
is

higher, already striving towards ideas

of immaterial usefulness and enjoyment,

what might be
at the top,

called

"good
the

sense." Lastly,

admitting, but controlling as

possible

severely

as

claims

of
all

the

imagination, of the feelings and of

connects our conscious
scious
life

that

with the uncon-

and with the unknown forces within

114

Our Anxious Morality

and without,
that
lies

the indeterminate part of

same

total reason, to

which we

will

give the

name of "mystic

reason."

It is

not necessary to set forth at length

the morality of

"common
which

sense," of that

good common
in the best

sense

exists in all of us,

alike,

and the worst of us

and

which springs up spontaneously on the ruins

of the religious idea.
each
It is the

morality of

man

for himself, of. practical, solid

egoism, of every material instinct and en-

joyment.

He who
:

starts

from common
going

sense considers that he possesses but one

certainty
his

own

life.

In that

life,

to the bottom of things, are but two real

evils: sickness

and poverty; and but two

genuine and irreducible boons: health and

riches.

All other

realities,

happy or unrest

happy, flow from

these.

The

joys and

"S

The Measure
sions

of the Hours

sorrows born of the feelings and the pas-

is

imaginary, because

it

depends
Ft.

upon the idea which we form of

right to enjoyment
is

Our
by the

limited only

similar right of those

time as ourselves;

who live at the same and we have to respect

With
the rescon-

certain laws established in the very interest

of our peaceful enjoyment.

ervation of these laws,
straint;

we admit no
far

and our

conscience, so

from

trammelling the movements of our

nessj must,

selfish-

on the contrary, approve of

their triumphs, seeing that these triumphs

are

what

is

most

in

accordance with the

life.

in-

stinctive

and logical duties of

first

There we have the

stratum, the
It
is

first

state of all natural morality.

a state

beyond which many men, after the complete

death of the religious ideas, will never go.

n6

Our Anxious Morality

VI As
for

"good
a

sense," which
less

is

a little less
it

material,

little

animal,

looks at

things

from a

slightly higher standpoint

little

and, consequently, sees a

farther.

It

soon perceives that niggardly

common
is

sense

leads an obscure, confined and wretched life

in its shell. It observes that

man

no more

able than the bee to remain solitary and that

the life which he shares with his fellows,

in

order to expand freely and completely,

pitiless

cannot be reduced to an unjust and

struggle or to a mere exchange of services

grudgingly rewarded.

In

its

relations toselfishness its

is

wards

others,

it

still

makes

starting-point;

but this

selfishness
It still
its

no

longer purely material.

utility,

considers

but already admits

It

spiritual or

sentimental side.

knows
the

joys and sorthe. objects

rows, affections and antipathies,

of which

may

exist
117

in

imagination.

The Measure of

the

Hours
rising to

Thus understood and capable of

material logic
interest

a certain height above the conclusions of

without
all

losing sight of

its

it

appears beyond the reach of

It flatters itself that
it is

every objection.
in solid

occupation of

reason's summits.

It

even makes a few concessions to that

fall

which does not perceptibly

latter's

within the

domain,

mean
It

to the passions, the

feelings

and

all the unexplained things that

surround them.

must needs make these

concessions, for, if not, the

gloomy caves

in

which

it

would shut

itself

would be no more
But

habitable than those in which dull com-

mon

sense leads

its

stupefied existence.

these very concessions call attention to the

unlawfulness of

its

claims to busy itself

with morality once that the latter has gone

beyond the ordinary practices of daily

life.

ii8

Our Anxious Morality

VII
Indeed, what can there be in

common
two

be-

tween good sense and the

duty, for instance?

stoical idea of

They
it

inhabit

dif-

ferent

and almost uncommunicating

sense,

regions.

Good

when

claims alone to pro-

mulgate the laws that form the inner man,

ought to meet with the same resistance and
the

same

obstacles as those against which

it

strikes in

one of the few regions which

:

it

has not yet reduced to slavery

aesthetics.

the region of

Here

it is

very happily consulted

on

all

that concerns the starting-point and

certain great lines, but

most imperiously

ordered to hold

its

peace so soon as the

achievement and the supreme and mysterious beauty of the work come into question.
But, whereas in aesthetics
easily
it

resigns itself

enough

to

silence,

in

morality
It

it

wishes to lord over

therefore, to put

all things.

were well,
all into

it

back once for

119

The Measure
its

of the Hours

lawful place in the generality of the

faculties that

makes up our human person.

VIII

One

of the features of our time

is

the

ever-increasing

and almost exclusive

confi-

dence which
intelligence

we

place in those parts of our

just described as
It

which we have

common
good
had

sense

and good
Formerly,

sense.

was not
and
rest

always thus.

man based upon

restricted
life.

sense only a

somewhat

the vulgarest portion of his

its

The

foundations in other regions of our

mind, notably in the imagination.

ions,

The relig-

for

instance,

and with them the

brightest part of the morality of which they

are the, chief sources, always rose

up

at a

great distance from the tiny limits of good

sense.

This was excessive; but the queswhether the present contrary excess

tion
is

is

not as blind.

The enormous strides made

of our
120

in the practice

life

by certain me-

Our Anxious Morality

chanical

and scientific laws make us allow

to
it

good
sense

sense a preponderance to which

this

remains to be proved that

is

same good

entitled.

The

apparently incontest-

able, yet

perhaps illusory logic of certain

believe ourselves

phenomena with which we

illogicality

acquainted makes us forget the possible

of millions of other phenomena

which we do not yet know.

Nothing

assures us that the universe obeys the laws

of

human
if

logic.

It

would even be

surpris-

ing

this

were so; for the laws of

our good sense are the fruit of an experience which

it
is

insignificant

when we compare
"There
is

with what we do not know.

effect

no

without a cause," says our good

Yes,
that

sense,

to take the tritest instance.

in the little circle

is

of our material
all-sufficing.

life,

undeniable

and

But,

so

soon as
circle,

we emerge from

this infinitesimal

the saying no longer answers to any-

thing, seeing that the notions of cause

and

The Measure of
effect

the Hours
in

are
all is

alike

unknowable

a
life,

world

where
the

unknown.
it

Now

our

from
is

moment when

raises itself a little,

constantly issuing

from the small material

circle and, consequently,

and experimental

from the domain of good

our mind,

sense.
it

Even

in

the visible world which serves

in

for a

model

reigns

we do not observe that it undivided. Around us, in her most

constant and most familiar manifestations,

nature very rarely acts according to good

sense.

What

could be more senseless than

her waste of existences?

What more

un-

reasonable than those billions of germs

blindly squandered to achieve the chance
birth of a single being?
ical

What more

illog-

than the untold and useless compli-

cation of her

means

(as,

for instance, in

the life of certain parasites and the im-

pregnation of flowers by insects) to attain

the simplest ends?

What madder
122

than

those thousands of worlds which perish in

Our Anxious Morality

space without accomplishing a single work?

All this goes beyond our good sense and

shows

it

that

it

is

not in agreement with

it is

general

life

and that

almost isolated
it

in

the universe.
itself
it

Needs must
which

argue against
shall not give

and recognise that we

our
life,
is

in

not isolated, the

it

preponderant place to which

is it

aspires.
it

This

not to say that

is

we

will
it

abandon
is

where

of use to us; but

well to

know
as

that

good

sense cannot suffice for every-

thingy being itself almost nothing.

Even

there exists without ourselves a world that

goes beyond

it,

.so there exists

it.

within ourIt
is

selves another that exceeds

in its

place and performs a humble and blessed

work
at

in its little village

but

it

must not aim

cities

becoming the master of the great

and the sovereign of the mountains and the

seas.

Now the great cities,

occupy
little

the seas and the

mountains

infinitely

more space

within us than the

village of our prac-

123

The Measure of
tical existence,

the Hours

which

is

the necessary agreeinferior,

ment upon a small number of

sometimes
truths

doubtful,

but

indispensable
It
is

and nothing more.

a bond

rather than a support.

We

must remember

that nearly all our progress has been

in despite

made

of the sarcasms and curses with

which good sense has received the unreasonable, but fertile hypotheses of the imagination.

Amid

the

moving and
let

eternal

waves of a boundless universe,

therefore, hold fast to our

us not,
as

good sense

though

to the one rock of salvation.

Bound

to that rock,

immovable through every age

and every

civilisation,

we should do nothing

of that which

ing of that which

we ought to do, become noth^ we may perhaps become.

IX
Until the present time, this question of a
morality limited by good sense possessed no
124

Our Anxious Morality

great importance.
It did not stay the de-

velopment of certain aspirations, of certain

forces that have always been considered the
finest

and noblest

to be

found

in

man.

The

religions completed the interrupted work.

To-day, feeling the danger of

tions,

its

limita-

the morality of

good

sense,

which

would

like to become the general morality,

seeks to extend itself as far as possible in

the direction of justice and generosity, to

find, in a

superior interest, reasons for being

fill

disinterested, in order to

up a portion of
inde-

the abyss that separates

structible forces

it

from those

and
it is

aspirations.

But there

are points which

unable to exceed withitself

out denying
at
its

itself,

without destroying

very source. After these points, which

are just those at which the great useless

virtues begin,

what guide remains

to us?

I2S

The Measure of

the Hours

X
We
shall see presently if
this question.
is
it

be possible to

answer

But, even admitting

that there

not, that there never can

be a

guide beyond the plains of the morality of

good

sense, this

is

no reason why we should

be anxious touching the moral future of

humanity.
sarily a

Man

is

so essentially, so necesthat,

moral being
all

when he

denies

the existence of
nial already

morality, that very de-

becomes the foundation of a

new

morality.

Mankind,

at a pinch, can

do

without a guide.

It proceeds a little

more

slowly, but almost as surely through the

darkness which no one lights.

within
to
itself

It carries
is

the light

whose flame

blown

and

fro, It

but incessantly revived by the

is,

storms.

so to speak, independent of
it.

the ideas which imagine that they lead

Moreover,

it

is

interesting

and easy

to

establish that these periodical ideas

126

have

Our Anxious Morality

always had but
little

influence
is

on the mass
in the

of good and evil that

done

world.
is

The
has

only thing that has a real influence

the spiritual
its

wave which

carries us,

which

ebbs and flows, but which seems

slowly to overtake and conquer

we know

not what in space.

the idea
is is is

More

important than
it,

the time that lapses around

the development of a civilisation which

only the level of the general

intelli-

gence at a given
religion

moment

in history.

If a

were revealed to us to-morrow,

scientifically

proving,

and with absolute

of

certainty, that every act of goodness,

self-sacrifice,

of heroism, of inward nobility

us,

would bring
ward,

immediately after our

death, an indubitable and unimaginable reI

doubt whether the proportion of

evil,

good and
which we
change.

of virtues and vices amid

live

would undergo an appreciable

a convincing ex-

Would you have

127

ample?

In the middle ages there were

The Measure of
moments when
truded
itself

the Hours

faith

was absolute and ob-

with a certainty that correscientific certainties.

sponds exactly with our

The rewards promised

thoughts of the

for well-doing, the

evil were, in the

punishments threatening

men

of that time, as tan-

gible, so to speak, as

would be those of the

Never-

revelation of which I spoke above.

theless,

we do

not see that the average of

goodness was raised.

A few saints sacrificed

from among the more

themselves for their brothers, carried certain virtues, selected

contestable, to the pitch of heroism; but the

bulk of

men
lie,

continued to deceive one anto fornicate, to steal, to be

other, to

guilty of envy, to

commit murder.

The

mean of
to-day.

the vices

was no lower than that of

On

the contrary, life was incom-

parably harsher, more cruel and more unjust,

because the low-water

mark of

the

general intelligence was less high.

128

Our Anxious Morality

XI
Let us return to our
positivist, utilitarian,

materialist or rational morality, which

we

have called the morality of common sense

and good

sense.

It

is

certain that, beside

still

the latter, there has always been, there

is

another which embraces

virtues of

all

that extends

from the

good

sense,

which are

necessary to our material and spiritual happiness, to the infinity

sacrifice,

of heroism, of

self-

of goodness, of love, of inward

It
is

probity and dignity.

certain that the

it

morality of good sense, although

pretty far in

may go

some

directions, such as that

of altruism, for instance, will always be a

little

wanting

in nobility, in disinterestedall,

ness and, above

in I

know

not what
it

faculties that are capable of bringing

into

direct relations with the uncontested mys-

tery of
If
it

life.

be probable, as we have hinted, that

129

The Measure

of the Hours
infini-

our good sense answers only to an

tesimal portion of the phenomena, the truths

and the laws of nature,

if it isolate

us some-

what piteously

in this world,

we have

within

us other faculties which are marvellously

adapted to the unknown parts of the universe

and which seem to have been given to

if

us expressly to prepare us,

not to under-

stand them, at least to admit them and to

undergo their great presentiments.

a,re

These

imagination and the mystic summit of

our reason.

Do

and say what we may, we

above

have never been, we are not yet a sort of

purely logical animal. There
is

in us,

the reasoning portion of our reason, a whole

region which answers to something different,

which

is

preparing for the surprises of

is

the future, which the unknown.

awaiting the events of

intelligence,

This part of our

which

I will call

imagination or "mystic

reason," went before us in times when, so to speak,

we knew nothing of
130

the laws of

Our Anxious Morality

nature,

outran our imperfect attainments

live,

and made us

morally,

socially

and

sentimentally, on a level very

much superior to that of those attainments. At the present time, when we have made the latter
take a few steps forward in the darkness

and when,
than

in the

hundred years that have

chaos

just elapsed,
in a

we have unravelled more

when our
material
fixed
life

thousand previous

centuries, at the

present time,

seems

on the point of becoming

is

and assured,
faculties

this a

reason

why

these

two

should cease to go ahead of us or

why

they

should retrocede towards good sense ?

there not,

Are

on the contrary, very serious

reasons for urging them forwards, so as

to restore the

normal distances and

Is
it

their

traditional lead?
lose confidence in

right that
Is
it

we

should

them?

possible to

say that they have hindered any form of

human

progress?

Perhaps they have de;

ceived us

more than once but

131

their fruitful

The Measure
errors,

of the Hours

by forcing us to march onwards,

us, in

have revealed to

the straying,

more

truths than our over-timid

good sense would

ever have lighted upon by marking time.

The most welcome

all

discoveries, in biology,

in chemistry, in medicine, in physics,

almost

had

their starting-point in an hypothesis

supplied by imagination or mystic reason,

an hypothesis which the experiments of

good
as

sense have confirmed, but which, given

to

it is

narrow methods,

it

would never

have foreseen."

XII
In the exact sciences, in which
if
it

seems as

they ought to be

first

dethroned, imaginais

tion

and mystic reason (that

to say that

part of our reason which extends above

good

sense,

draws no conclusions and plays

an enormous and lawful part in the hesitations

and

possibilities

of the unknown)

our

imagination, I was saying, and our mystic

132

Our Anxious Morality

reason again occupy a place of honour.
aesthetics,

In

they

reign

almost

undivided.
in

Why

should silence be laid upon them

fills

our morality, which

an intermediary

space between the exact sciences and aesthetics?

There

is

no concealing the

fact: if

they cease to come to the assistance of good

sense, if they give

up prolonging
from a

its

work,

the whole

summit of our morality

falls in

abruptly. Starting
is

certain line

which

exceeded by the heroes, the great wise

the majority of mere good
is

men and even by

men,
fruit
all

the height of our morality

the

of our imagination and belongs to

mystic reason.

The

ideal

man,

as

formed
ex-

by the most enlightened and the most

tensive

good

sense, does not yet correspond,

does not even correspond in the slightest

degree with the ideal

tion.

man

of our imagina-

The

latter is infinitely higher,

more more

generous, nobler,

more
133

disinterested,

capable of love, of self-abnegation, of devo-

The Measure of
tlon

the

Hours
It
Is

and of

essential sacrifices.

a ques-

tion of

knowing which of the two

question of

is

right or

wrong, which has the right of surviving.

Or, rather,
it
is

knowing

whether some new

this

fact permit us to

make

demand and

to bring into question the

high traditions of human morality.

XIII

Where

shall
all

we

find

this

new

fact?

Among

the revelations which science

is

has lately given us,

there a single one

that authorises us to take anything

ideal set before us

from the

by Marcus Aurelius, for

least sign,

instance?

Does the

the least

indication, the least presentiment arouse a

suspicion that the primitive ideas which

hitherto have guided the just

to change their direction

man

will

have

and that the road

road ?

of

human

good-will
tells

is

a false
it is

What

discovery

us that
134

time to destroy

Our Anxious Morality

in

our conscience

all

that goes

beyond

strict

justice, that is to

say those

unnamed

virtues
life,

which, beyond those necessary to social

appear to be weaknesses and yet turn the

simple decent

man into the real and found good man ? Those virtues, we shall be told, and a
souls, those virtues
in

pro-

host

of others that have always formed the per-

fume of great

would
world

doubtless be in their places

wherein the struggle for

so necessary as
it

life

was no longer
a planet
is

is

now on

on

which the evolution of

finished.

species

not yet

Meanwhile, most of them disarm

practise

those

who

them

as against those

who do

not practise them.

the development of those

They trammel who ought to be

the best to the advantage of the less good.

They oppose an
and
this

excellent, but

human and
necessarily

particular ideal to the general ideal of life;

more

restricted ideal

is

vanquished beforehand.
135

The Measure
The
for

of the Hours
First of

objection

is

a specious one.

all, this

so-called discovery of the struggle

life, in

which men seek the source of a

is
is

new

morality,
It

at

bottom but

a discovery

of words.

not enough to give an unin

accustomed name to an immemorial law

order to render lawful a radical deviation

from the human

life

ideal.

The
its

struggle for

has existed since the existence of our

consequences was
riddles solved

planet ; and not one of

modified, not one of
the day

its

on

when men thought

it

that they
it

had
with

taken cognizance of

by adorning

an appellation which a
ulary will change,
years have passed.

whim
it

of the vocabbefore
fifty

perhaps,

Next,

behoves us to

admit

that, if these virtues

in the face

sometimes

dis-

arm us

of those

who do not know

the over-

them, they disarm us only in very contemptible combats.

Certainly,

scrupulous
is

man will be

deceived by him

who

unscrupulous, the too-loving, over-indul136

Our Anxious Morality

gent, too-devoted

man
is

will suffer

at the

hands of him who

less so;

but can this

be called a victory of the second over the

first?

In what does

this defeat strike at

the inner life of the better

lose

man?

He
it;

will

some material advantage by

lose

but he

would
vated

much more by

leaving unculti-

all

the region that extends beyond the

morality of good sense.

riches
his
sensibility

The man who

his

en-

enriches

intelli-

gence; and these are the properly

forces that always

human
last

end by having the

word.

XIV
Moreover,
if

a few general thoughts suc-

ceed in emerging from the chaos of halfdiscoveries, of half-truths that beguile the

mind of modern man, does not one of

every species of living being
all

these

thoughts assert that nature has given to

the instincts
its

necessary for the accomplishment of

137

The Measure of
destinies?

the Hours
all times,

And

has she not, at

given us a moral ideal which, in the most

primitive
civilised

savage

and the most refined

preserves a propor-

man

alike,

tional

and perceptibly equal distance ahead

of the conclusions of good sense ? Is not the

savage, just
civilised
as,

in

a higher sphere,
infinitely

the

man, as a rule

more
to
his

generous,

more

loyal,

more
Is

true

word than
his

the interest and experience of

life

wretched

advise?

it

not thanks
live in

to this instinctive ideal that

we

an

environment

in

which, despite the practical

evil,

preponderance of

excused by the harsh

necessities of existence, the idea of

goodness

and

justice reigns
in

more and more supreme

is

and

which the public conscience, which

the perceptible
ideal,

and general form of that

becomes more and more powerful

and

certain of itself?

138

Our Anxious Morality

XV
It
is

fitting that

we should come
all,

to an

understanding, once for

on the rights of

our

instincts.

We

no longer allow the and to

rights of any of our lower instincts to be

contested.

We

know how

to justify

ennoble them by attaching them to some

great law of nature.
certain

Why

should not
quite

more

elevated instincts,

as

incontestable as those which crawl at the

bottom of our
rogatives ?

senses, enjoy the

same

pre-

Must

they be denied, suspected

or treated as illusions because they are not

related to the
sities
is it

two or three primitive

life ?

necesexist,

of animal

Once that they

not probable that they are as indispen-

sable as the others to the accomplishment of

a

destiny

concerning which

we do

not

know what is useful or useless to it, seeing that we do not know its objects? And is it
not, then, the duty of our
139

good

sense, their

The Measure
them and,
sphere ?
finally, to

of the Hours

innate enemy, to help them, to encourage

confess to itself that

life

certain parts of

our

are

beyond

its

XVI
It
is

our duty, above

all,

to strive to

develop within ourselves the specific characteristics

of the class of living being to

which we belong and, by preference, those

which distinguish us the most from
other
all

the
us.

phenomena of the
these

life

around

Among

characteristics,
is,

one of the

most notorious
intelligence as

much our our moral aspirations. One

perhaps, not so

portion of these aspirations emanates from

our intelligence; but another has always

gone before
pendent of
in
it,

it,

has always appeared inde-

it

and, finding no visible roots

elsewhere,

has sought

no matter

where, but especially

in the religions the

explanation of a mysterious instinct that

140

Our Anxious Morality

urged
it

to

go

farther.

To-day, when the

qualified to explain

religions are

no longer

anything, the fact none the less remains;

and

do not think that we have the right

a stroke of the pen a
existence with

to suppress with

whole region of our inner

the sole object of gratifying the reasoning

organs of our judgment. Besides,

all

things

hang together and help one another, even

those

which seem to contend with one

another, in the mystery of man's instincts,

faculties

and

aspirations.

Our

intelligence
sacri-

derives an immediate profit

fices

from the

which

it

makes

to our imagination

when

the latter caresses an ideal which the

former does not think consonant with the

realities

of

life.

Our

intelligence has for

some years been too prone

it is

to believe that
It

able to suffice for

all

itself.

needs

all

our forces,
all

our feelings,

all

our passions,
is

our unconsciousness,
all

all

that

with

it

and

that

is

against

it,

in

order to spread

141

The Measure
and
flourish
is

of the Hours
But the nutriment
it

in

life.

which

necessary to

above any other

is

the great anxieties, the grave sufferings, the

noble joys of our heart.

to
it

These truly are

is

what the water from heaven

the

to the

lilies,

dew of
it

the

morning

to the roses. to stoop

It is well that

should

know how

and pass
certain

in silence

before certain desires and

it

dreams of that heart which

does

not always understand, but which contains

a light that has

more than once

it

led

it

towards truths which

the extreme points of

sought

in vain at

its

thoughts.

XVII

We
and

are an indivisible

spiritual

whole;

it is

only for the needs of the spoken

or written

word

that

we

are able,

when we
senti-

study them, to separate the thoughts of our

intelligence

from the passions and

ments of our heart.

Every man
142

is

more or

Our Anxious Morality

less the victim

of this illusory division.

He

says to himself, in his youth, that he will

see into
it

more

clearly

when he

is

older.

He
turb

imagines that his passions, even the

dis-

most generous of them, obscure and

his

thought; and he asks himself,

with I know not what hope,

how

far that

thought will go when

his

it

reigns alone over

senses.
is

lulled

dreams and

And
clear,

old

age comes: the intelligence

has no object remaining.
left to do,
is
it

but

It

has nothing

works
in

in the void.

And

it

thus that,

the domains where the

visible,

results

of that division are the most

we

observe that, in general, the

is

work of

old age

not equal to that of youth or of

mature age, which, nevertheless, has much

less

experience

and knows many fewer

stifled

things, but

which has not yet

the

mysterious forces foreign to our

gence.

intelli-

143

The Measure

of the Hours

XVIII
If

we be now asked

which,

when

all

is

said, are the precepts

of that lofty morality

it,

whereof we have spoken without defining

we

will reply that

it

presupposes a state of

soul or of heart rather than a code of

strictly-formulated precepts.
tutes
its

What

consti-

essence

is

the sincere and strong

wish to form within ourselves a powerful

idea of justice

and of love that always

clearest

rises

above that

formed by the

and most

generous portions of our intelligence.

could mention a thousand examples
take one only, that which
all
is
:

One
I will

at the centre of
all

our anxieties and beside which

the

rest has

no importance, that which, when we

thus speak of lofty and noble morality and

perfect virtues, cross-examines us as culprits

and asks us

bluntly,

"And when do you

intend to put a stop to the injustice in

which you live?"

144

Our Anxious Morality

who possess more than the others, we who are more or less rich as against those who are quite poor, we all live
Yes,
all

of us

in the

midst of an injustice deeper than that

arises

which

from the abuse of brute

strength, because
is

not even real.

we abuse a strength which Our reason deplores this

it,

injustice,

but explains

excuses
It

it

and

de-

clares
it is

it

to be inevitable.

shows us that
it

impossible to apply to
efficacious

the swift

and

remedy which our equity

remedy would
and more
pretended to

seeks; that any too radical

carry with

it

evils

more

cruel
it

desperate than those which

cure;
it

proves to
is

us,

in short, that this

injustice

organic, essential
all

and

in con-

formity with
reason
is

the laws of nature.

is

perhaps right; but what

Our much
is

more

deeply,

much more

surely right

our

ideal of justice,

which proclaims that our

reason
acting,

is it

wrong.
is

Even when
145

it

is

not

well, if not for the present,

The Measure

of the Hours

at least for the future, that this ideal should

have a quick sense of

iniquity; and, if

it

no longer involves renunciations or heroic

sacrifices, this is

not because

it is

less

noble

or less
ligions,

sure than the ideal of the best re-

but because

it

promises no other

rewards than those of duty accomplished

and because these rewards are

just those

which hitherto only a few heroes have

understood and which the great presenti-

ments that hover beyond our intelligence

are seeking to

make

us understand.

XIX
In
reality,

we need

so few precepts

Perhaps three or four, at the utmost

or
six,

five

which a child could give

all,

us.

We

must, before

understand them; and "to

understand," as
a rule, the
If that

we

take

it,

is

hardly, as

beginning of the
all

life

of an

ideal.

were enough,

our intelligences

and

all

our characters would be equal; for

146

Our Anxious Morality

every
is

man

of even a very

mean

intelligence
stage, all

apt to understand, at this

is

first

that
ness.

explained to him with sufficient clear-

There are

as

many manners and

as

many

stages in the

manners of understand-

ing a truth as there are minds that think

that they understand
it.

If I prove, for

instance, to an intelligent vain

man how

childish

is

his vanity, to

an egoist capable
unreasonable and
they will readily

of comprehension
hateful
is

how

his

egoism,

agree, they will even amplify

said.

what

have

There

is,

therefore,

no doubt that
it is

they have understood; but

very nearly
act as

certain that they will continue to

though not so much

as the extremity of
just

one of the truths which they have

admitted had grazed their brain. Whereas,

in

another man, these truths, covered with

the same words, will one evening suddenly

enter and penetrate, through his thoughts,
to the very

bottom of
147

his heart, upsetting

The Measure

of the Hours
every

his existence, displacing every axis,

lever, every joy, every sorrow, every object

of his

activity.

He

has understood the

for

sense of the

word

"to understand,"
that
is

we cannot

flatter ourselves
it

we have

understood a truth until

impossible

for us not to shape our lives in accordance

with

it.

XX
To
of
return to and resume the central idea
us recognise that
it is

all this, let

neces-

sary to maintain the equilibrium between

what we have

called

good

sense

and the
life.

other faculties and sentiments of our

Contrary to our former wont, we are nowadays

too

much
in

inclined

to

shatter

this

equilibrium
Certainly,
trol

favour

of

good

sense.

good sense has the

strictly
it,

right to con-

more

than ever
all

all

that other

forces bring to

that goes
its

beyond the

practical conclusions of
148

reasoning; but

Our Anxious Morality

it it

cannot prevent them from acting until

has acquired the certainty that they are
it; its

deceiving
respect of

and

it

owes

to itself, to the

own laws

the duty of being

in
it

more and more circumspect

that certainty.

asserting

Now, though

may have

acquired the conviction that those forces

have committed
divine

a mistake in ascribing to a

and

precise will

and injunctions the

majority

of

the
;

phenomena manifested
though
it

within themselves

be

its

duty to

redress the accessory errors that proceed

from

this central error,

by eliminating, for
ideal a host of
it

instance,
sterile

from our moral

and dangerous

virtues,

could never
subsist,
in-

deny that these same phenomena

whether they emanate from a superior

stinct,

from the

life

of the species,

infinitely

more powerful within

individual, or

us than the life of the

unintelligible

from any other

it

source.

In any case,
;

could not treat them

as illusions

for, at that rate,

149

we might

ask

The Measure

of the Hours

ourselves whether this supreme judge, out-

flanked and contradicted on every side by

the genius of nature and the inconceivable

laws of the universe, be not

illusive

itself
it

more

than the illusions which

aspires

to destroy.

XXI
For
all

that touches

upon our moral

life,

we

still

have the choice of our

itself,

illusions:

good

sense

that

is

to say the scientific

spirit, is

obliged to admit as much. Where-

fore, taking

one

illusion

with another,

let

us

welcome those from above rather than those from below.

The

former, after

all,

have
are;

brought us to the stage at which

and,

we

when we look back upon our

starting-

point, the dreadful cave of prehistoric

man,

we owe them
that
is

a certain gratitude.

The

latter illusions, those

of the inferior regions,

sense,

to say of

good
ISO

have given

proofs of their capacity hitherto only when

Our Anxious Morality

accompanied and supported by the former.

They have
are

not yet walked alone.

first

taking their

steps in the

They are dark. They

leading us,

they say, to a regular,

assured, measured, exactly-weighed state of

well-being, to the conquest of matter.
it

Be

so

they have charge of this kind of hap-

piness.

But
it,

let

them not pretend

that, to

attain
like a

it is

necessary to fling overboard,

all

dangerous cargo,

that hitherto

formed the

heroic, cloud-topped, indefatig-

able, adventurous energy of our conscience.

Leave us

few fancy

virtues.

Allow a

little

space for our fraternal sentiments.

It is
senti-

very possible that these virtues and

ments, which are not
to the just
all

strictly indispensable

man

of to-day, are the roots of

that will blossom

when man
Also,

shall

have
the

accomplished

the

hardest

stage

of

"struggle for life."

we must keep

few sumptuary
to
replace

virtues in reserve, in order

those

which we abandon as
151

The Measure
useless;

of the Hours

for our conscience has need of

exercise

and nourishment.
off a

Already we
constraints
at

have thrown

number of

which were assuredly hurtful, but which

least kept up the activity of our inner

life.

We We
tion,

are no longer chaste, since

we have
cursed

recognised that the

work of the
is

flesh,

for twenty centuries,

natural and lawful.

no longer go out

in search

of resigna;

of mortification, of sacrifice

we

are no

longer lowly in heart or poor in

this
is

spirit.

All

very lawful, seeing that these virtues

is

depended on a religion which

but
it

retiring;

is

not well that their places should

remain empty.

Our

Ideal

no longer asks to
even

create saints, virgins, martyrs; but,

though

it

take another road, the spiritual

road that animated the saints must remain

intact

and

is still

necessary to the

man who
It

wishes to go further than simple justice.

is

beyond that simple

justice

that

the

morality begins of those

IS2

who hope

in the

Our Anxious Morality

future.
It is in this

perhaps

fairy-like,

but

not chimerical part of our conscience that

we must
delight.

acclimatise ourselves
It
is still

and learn to

reasonable to persuade

ourselves that in so doing

we have

not been

duped.

XXII
The
good-will of

men

is

admirable.

They

are ready to renounce

all

the rights which

all their

they thought

specific, to all their

abandon

dreams and
even as

hopes of happiness,

many

of them have already abanall their

doned, without despairing,

hopes
in ad-

beyond the tomb. They are resigned

vance to seeing their generations succeed

one another without an

an horizon, a future,
will of life.
if

object, a mission,

such be the certain

The

energy and pride of our

conscience will manifest themselves for the

last

time in this acceptation and in this adBut, before reaching this stage,
it is

hesion.

before abdicating so gloomily,

IS3

right

The Measure
that

of the Hours
;

we should

ask for proofs and, hitherto,

these seem to turn against those

who

bring

them.
are
still

In any case, nothing

in suspense.

is

decided.

We

Those who assure us

that the old moral ideal must disappear,

because the religions are disappearing, are

strangely mistaken.
ions that
It

was not the

relig-

formed the

ideal,

but the ideal that

gave birth to the

last

religions.

Now that these

their

have weakened or disappeared,

sources survive and seek another channel.

When
we

all is said,

with the exception of

parasitic virtues

cer-

tain factitious

and

which

naturally abandon at the turn of the

is

majority of religions, there

to be changed in our old
justice, conscientiousness,

nothing as yet
ideal of

Aryan

courage, kindness

and honour.
to
it,

We
it
;

have only to draw nearer

closely, to realise it

to clasp

more

more
it,

effectively
still

and, before going beyond

a long

we have

and noble road to

travel beneath the stars.

IS4

ROME

ROME

FOR
does so

twenty centuries,
all

Rome
was

has been
beautiful;

the storehouse of

that

and surely

in

no other spot
survive.

in the

world

much beauty

She has created nothing, save perhaps a

certain spirit of grandeur, a coordination of

beautiful things; but the most magnificent

moments of the

earth clung to her so fondly

their

and displayed such energy during

sojourn that on no other point of the globe

many Treading her soil, we

have they
left so

imperishable traces.
tread the mutilated

footprint of the goddess

who reveals herself

site,

no longer

to

men.
estab-

Nature gave her the wonderful

lished her
fitly

for the races that passed

157

The Measure

of the Hours

beside on the peaks of history to let fall

their jewels into the noblest cup ever

opened

beneath the sky.

She was not unworthy to

;

receive those marvels she was already their

equal.

Beneath her limpid

azure,

the
still

gloomy, obscure plants of the north

mate

with

southern

foliage,

inhaling
the purlifts its
;

their brightness
est of

and gladness.

her trees

To

the cypress, which

head

like

an ardent and sombre prayer the

stone-pine, into

which the forest has whis;

pered

its

gravest and sweetest thought

the

massive evergreen oak, which so willingly

adopts an archway's
graceful

form

to

these the tradition of ages has given a

pride, a conscious solemnity
sess

which they pos-

no elsewhere

in the

world.

None

can

forget them,

who

once has seen them and

recognise

understood, or

fail to

them from

among kindred trees of a less sacred soil. They were the ornaments, they were the witnesses of incomparable things. They are
is8


Rome
one with the scattered aqueducts, the
dis-

crowned mausoleums, the broken arches; one with the columns, heroic in their ruin,
that array the deserted

Campagna.
of
the

They
eternal

have

assumed the

style

marbles, which they surround with respect

and

silence.

Like these marbles, they also

clear,

have two or three

but mysterious lines

to tell of the sorrow confessed

by a plain

that bears, without flinching, the wreck of

its

glory.

They

are

and know they are

their

Roman.

circle

of mountains,

sonorous

names augustly familiar, their heads often

charged with snow as dazzling as the

memories which they evoke, create around

the city that never can perish a precise and
glorious horizon, which divides her from

the world, but does not isolate her from the

sky.

And,

in these desolate precincts; in

the midst of the lifeless places where the

flagstones, the steps, the porticoes multiply
IS9

The Measure
silence

of the Hours
at all the cross-roads
in

and absence;

where some wounded statue keeps guard

emptiness;
the

among

the basins, the capitals,

the tritons, water flows
still

nymphs and

docile

and luminous, obedient

to the

orders received two thousand years ago,

decking the immaculate solitude with

its

mobile fragrance,

its

garlands of
its

dew and

trophies of crystal,

azure plumes and

is

crowns of pearl.

It

as

though time,

among

all
it,

the

monuments

that

had hoped

to brave

respected only the fragile hours

of that which evaporates and flows away.

II

Beauty, though always a borrowed beauty,

has dwelt so long within these walls which

go from the Janiculum

to the Esquillne

it

has taken root there so persistently that the

very spot, the air

covers
it,

we

breathe, the sky that

it

the curves that define

i6o

have

ac-

Rome
quired a prodigious power of appropriation

and ennoblement.
fies all

Rome,

like a pyre, puri-

that the errors and caprices of men,

their

ignorance

and extravagance

have

forced upon her incessantly since her ruin.

So

far,

it

has been impossible to disfigure

her.

One might almost believe that, for any work to be carried out here or to live,
it

must

first

cast off

its

original ugliness,

it

must cease to be vulgar.

Whatever does
hills is

not conform to the style of the seven

slowly effaced and rejected;
it

crumbles

beneath the influence of the watchful genius

that has fixed the aesthetic principles of the
city

on the horizons, the rocks and the

Thus, for instance,

marble of the heights.

the art of the middle ages and the Primitives

.

must have been more

city, since this

active here than

in

any other

was the heart of

these even

the Christian universe; and yet they have

left

but few distinctive

it

traces,

appearing, as

were, hidden and ashamed

i6i

The Measure

of the Hours

enough, but no more, for the history of the

world, of which this was the centre, not to

be left incomplete.

But when we turn to

those artists whose spirit was naturally in

harmony with
destinies

that which presides over the

of
the

the

eternal

city

Giulio
all,

Romano,
their

Carracci

and,

above

Raphael and Michael Angelo

we

find in

work here

a plenitude of power, a

conviction, a kind of instinctive satisfaction

which they manifest

in

no other

place.

One

feels that they

had not

to create, but

only to choose from

among

the unrevealed

forms that thronged to them imperiously

from
born
:

every

side,

clamouring

to

be

to these the masters gave substance.

mistake was impossible:

they did not

paint, in the

proper sense of the word, but

merely uncovered the veiled images which

had haunted the

palaces.
is

halls

and arcades of the

And

so intimate, so indispensable

the relation between their art and the

162

Rome
environment that gives
their
it

life

that,

when

works are exiled to the museums or

cities,

churches of other

they seem out of

proportion, unduly vigorous and unduly

decorative, with an arbitrary conception of
life.

It

is

for this reason

that copies

or photographs of the ceiling of the Sistine

Chapel appear disconcerting and almost

comprehensible.

in-

But to the
the Vatican

traveller
till

who

does not enter

he, too, has

drunk

in the

mighty will-power that emanates from the

thousand fragments of the temples and
public places:
to

him Michael Angelo's

becomes magnificent
prodigious vault,

overpowering

effort

and natural.

The

on
in

which a people of giants hurtle together

a grave

and harmonious orgy of enthusiasm

into an arch of the very

and muscles, turns

sky and

reflects all the scenes

of energy,

all

the burning virtues the memories of which

are
still restless

beneath the ruins of this

163

The Measure
passionate soul.

of the Hours

So, too, as he stands be-

fore the Conflagration of the Borgo, he will

not feel as he would were he to behold the

admirable fresco on the walls of the National Gallery or the

Louvre; he will not

say to himself, as Taine does, for instance,

that
these

superb

nude bodies are but

is

vaguely concerned with the thing that

happening, that the flames which arise from

the building in

no wise

disturb
is

them and
to pose as

that their one preoccupation

good models and bring

the visitor

into value the curve

of a hip or the anatomy of a thigh.

No,

who

has submissively heeded the

injunctions of all that surrounds

him

will

require

no
he

telling that here, in these halls of

the Vatican, as beneath the vault of the

Sistine,
is

contemplating the tardy, but

logical

normal and

development of an art

which might have been that of Rome.

He

will realise that, different as the impression

may

be

which these two

164

great

efforts

Rome
produce,

he

discovers

the

formula here

which the too positive genius of the Quirites

had lacked the good fortune or

tunity to disengage.

the oppor-

For Rome, notwithr

standing

all

her endeavours, could not, of

her

own

initiative, give to the universe the

essential

image which she had promised.

It

was

to the spoils of Greece that she

owed

her beauty; and her chief merit was that

she understood the beauty of Greek art and

eagerly amassed

its
it

treasures.

Her
its

en-

deavours to add to
;

resulted only in deexpres-

formity she was unable to adapt

sion to her personal
life.

Her paintings and

sculptures
heresy,
realities

responded only by a kind of

vague approximateness to the

of
her
existence;
as

and

such

feeble

originality

her
its

architecture
colossal pro-

possessed was due solely to

portions.

One might almost imagine

that

old Buonarotti and

the superb colourist of

after all the

Urbino had but unearthed,

I6S

The Measure of

the Hours
and the

catastrophes, all the long silences

seeming deaths of Rome, the

terrupted tradition which

latent, unin-

had unceasingly

been in travail underground and which

now

emerged
and
pire

at last to culminate in their

work

to declare to the

world what the

to say.

Em-

had been powerless

are

For these

men

more

distinctively

Roman, more

truly representative, perhaps, of the unconscious

and

secret desire of that Latin earth

than was the

Rome

of the Cjesars.
its

That
re-

Rome had
mained

failed in

image.

She had

artificially

Hellenic;

and Greece
forms

could not provide this infinitely vaster race,

differing so widely

from

her, with the

demanded by
starting-point;
statues

its

ornamental consciousness.

Greece could be only a sure and magnificent

but her
delicate, nicely,

precise

and paintings, so

almost
in

minutely proportioned, were out of place

that

Forum,

surcharged
as

with
the

immense
monstrous

monuments,

among
i66

Rome
Therms and
cas.

violent circuses, or under the

basili-

sumptuous arches of the superposed

What

if

those frescoes of Michael

to the call of the

Angelo were the answer

empty arches that had waited a thousand

years
;

what

if

they were the almost organic

consequence of those imperial columns and

marbles?
too
tives

And may we
the

not ask ourselves

the

whether

ceiling,

penden-

and

lunettes of the

Farnesina and

the

Conflagration of the Borgo do not

illustrate, better

by far than the sculptures

or Her-

of Phidias or Praxiteles, better also than

the
best

paintings

of Pompeii

culaneum,

the

Metamorphoses of Ovid,

Virgil's /Eneid, or the

poems of Horace ?

Ill

But

all

this,

perhaps,

is

merely

illusion

and due to the

spell of the appropriative

power which we have mentioned above.

167


The Measure of
That power
the
first
is

the Hours

such that whatever might, at

glance,

seem wholly opposed

to the

idea that reigns within these walls not only

does not contradict this idea, but serves to

define

and declare
exuberant,

it.

Even Bernini
ubiquitous

rhe-

torical,

Bernini

as irreconcilable as

it is

possible to be with

the primitive

gravity and taciturnity of

he,

Rome, even

so detestable elsewhere,
justified

seems here to be adopted,

by the

genius of the city and serves to explain and

illustrate

certain

somewhat

redundant
greatness.

and declamatory
Moreover, a

sides of

Roman

city that possesses the

Venus

of the Capitol and of the Vatican, the

Sleeping Ariadne, the Meleager and the

Torso of Hercules, the countless marvels

of museums as numerous almost as her palaces

think

only

of the

treasures

in

single one of these

all,

museums, the newest of

the

Nazionale

city

whose every

street,

almost every house conceals some

i68

Rome
fragment of marble or bronze which, did

some new town contain

grims flocking; a

it,

would send

pil-

city that

can offer the

Pantheon of Agrippa,
the

certain columns in

Forum,

in a

word, so

many

treasures

that baffled

memory cannot keep

;

pace with

untiring admiration
its

a city that has

among

wonders those cypress-girdled lawns of

the Villa Borghese, those fountains, those

eternal gardens; a city, indeed, that
is

the

refuge of

all

that

was

best in the past of

the only people

who

cultivated beauty as

others cultivated corn, the olive or the vine

such a city opposes a resistance to vulgarity

which, inactive though

ble
;

it

be,

is

yet invinci-

and she can

tolerate all things without

defilement.

The immortal

presence of an
mutila-l

assembly of gods, so perfect that no

tion can alter the rhythm of body or pose,

protects her against the errors herself

may

commit and prevents the new generations of men from having more empire upon her
169

The Measure
very gods.

of the Hours

than time and the barbarians had on those

And

these lead us back to the

little cities

of Hellas that discovered one day and fixed

for ever the laws of

human

beauty.

The
spots

beauty of the earth, except for

some

which our sordid industries have ravaged,

has altered but
little

since the days of

Au-

gustus and Pericles.

is still

inviolate.

The sea is infinite still, The forest, the plain, the

and streams,
the evening,
all

harvest, the villages, rivers

the mountains, the the stars

dawn and

and the

sky,

vary as these

may
and

according to climate and latitude, offer us

still

the

same

spectacles of grandeur

tenderness, the

same

soft,

profound har-

monies, the same fairy-like scenes of changing complexity which they

showed

to the

Athenian

citizens

and the people of Rome.

Nature

remains

more

or

less

as

she

was; and, besides, we have grown more

sensitive

and can to-day admire more

170

freely.

Rome
But,

when we

turn to the beauty special to

is

man, the beauty that

aim,

his

own immediate
to our too

we

find that,

owing perhaps

great wealth or excessive application, to the^

scattering of our efforts, our lack of concentration, or the

want of a

certain goal

and

an incontestable starting-point, we appear to

have

lost

almost

all

that the ancients

had

been able to establish and make their own.

In
in
all

that regards purely

human

aesthetics,

what concerns our body, our gestures, our

clothes, the objects

we

live with,

our houses

and gardens, our monuments, even our landscapes,

we

are groping so timidly,

we

dis-

play such confusion and inexperience that

one might truly believe our occupation of

this planet to date but

from yesterday and

ourselves to be

still

at the very beginning of

the period of adaptation.

For the work of

exists a

our hands there no longer

common

measure, an accepted rule or conviction.

Our

painters,

our architects,
171

our sculp-

The Measure
tors,

of the Hours

our

men

of letters

homes, our
ent,

cities

and

we

in

our

seek in a thousand differ-

contradictory directions for the sure,

the undeniable beauty- which the ancients

possessed so fully.

Should one of

us,

by

any chance,

create, join together or discover

a few lines, a

harmony of form or colour

that should incontestably prove that the

mysterious, decisive point had been attained,

it

would be regarded

as the merest hazard,

as

an isolated and precious phenomenon

else

and neither the author nor any one

would be able

to repeat

it.

And

yet, for a

few happy

years,

man had
is

mastered the laws of the beauty that

essentially

and

specifically

human; and so
it

great

was

his certainty that

compels our

conviction even to this day.

In the beauty
instinctively

of his

own body,
fixed

the

Greek

found the

standard which the EgypPersians and all the

in

tians, the Assyrians, the

anterior

civilisations

had sought

vain

172

Rome
among animals and
flowers,

rocks
;

and

mountains, monsters and chimeras

architecture of his temples
style

and the and

in his

and palaces, the

of his

houses,

the proportion

ornament of the things which he used

daily life were all derived

from the beauty

of this nude and perfect body. This people,

among which
quence,
the

nudity, with

its

natural conse-

irreproachable

harmony of

limbs and muscles, was almost a religious

and

civic obligation,

has taught us that the

is

beauty of the
its

human body
as
spiritual,

as diverse in
as mysterious

perfection,

as the beauty of the stars or sea.

Every

other ideal has misled and must always mislead the endeavours and efforts of man.
all

In

the arts, intelligent races came nearer to

true

beauty

in

proportion as they came

nearer to the habit of nudity; departing

from

this,

they departed also from beauty.

The

beauty proper to
little

Rome

in

other

words, the

original beauty
173

which she

The Measure of
added

the Hours

to the spoils of Greece

was due

to

the last remains of this custom.

For, in
as-

Rome,

as

Taine

tells

us,

"they also

sembled together to swim, to be rubbed, to

perspire, to wrestle

and run or
;

at least, to

watch the runners and

wrestlers.

For

Rome,
same

in this respect, is

only an enlarged
life obtain,

Athens; the same ways of

habits,
:

the

the

same

instincts
lies in

and

pleasures the only difference

the procity

portion and the moment.

The

has

swollen

till it

numbers masters by the hun-

dred thousand and slaves by the million;

but,

from Xenophon

to

Marcus

Aurelius,

the gymnastic and rhetorical training has

not altered they have

;

still
it is

the tastes of athin this direction

letes

and orators and

that one must

work to

please

them they are

;

worshippers of the nude, they are judges of

style,

of conversation and ornament.

We
of

can no longer understand this pagan

life

the body, which was so curious and yet so

174

Rome
idle
;

the climate has remained as

it

was, but

man changed when

turned Christian."
It

he put on clothes and

might more

justly be said, perhaps, that

Rome,
was an

at the period of

which Taine speaks,

intermittent and incomplete Athens.

in

What was habitual there and,

ure,

some measartificial

organic becomes here only

exceptional.

and

They

still

cultivate
it

and

admire the human body, but

;

is

almost

always concealed by the toga and the wearing of the toga blurs the pure, clear lines

which a multitude of nude and living

statues

imposed upon the columns and

pediments of the temples.

The monuments
form

grow
and,

larger
little

and

larger, lose their

their
is

by

little,

human harmony.
shrouded and the
artists

The golden
veil shall

standard

be lifted only by a few

of

the

Renascence, which was the

positive beauty shed
its last

moment
beams.

when

175

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
ACCIDENT

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ACCIDENT

THE more
nature, the

we master
even

the forces of

more do our chances of

as

accidents

multiply,
in

the

tamer's

dangers increase

proportion to the num-

ber of wild animals which he "puts through

their tricks"
in the cage.

Formerly,

avoided the contact of these forces as

as possible
;

we much

to-day, they have gained admit-

tance to our household.

And

so,

notwith-

standing our more prudent and peaceable

manners,
to

it

happens to us more often than

our fathers to look pretty closely upon

It
is

death.

probable, therefore, that

many
felt

of those

who

read these notes will have

the same emotions and have

had occasion

to

make

similar remarks.
179

The Measure

of the Hours

II

One
that

of the

first

questions that arise

Is
it

is

that

of presentiment.

from the

many assert, very morning we have a sort

true, as

of intuition of the event that threatens the

day?

It

is

difficult to reply,

inasmuch

as

our experience can bear only upon events

which "inight have turned out worse," or

which, at
It
least,

have had no serious

results.
acci-

seems natural, therefore, that those

dents which were to be free from conse-

quences should not have stirred the deep

waters of our instinct beforehand; and

believe
it

to be true that they

do not even

ripple their surface.

As

for the others,

which

entail a

more or

less

speedy death,

their victims

seldom possess the strength

or lucidity required to satisfy our curiosity. In any case,

is

all

that our personal expei-ience

able to gather

on

this subject

is

very

uncertain; and the question remains.

i8o

The Psychology
III

of Accident

One

fine day, then,

we

start at early

dawn,

by motor-car,
or steam-boat
that
is

bicycle, motor-cycle, in a skiff

:

it is

immaterial to the event

preparing; but, to

make

the picture

more

definite, let

us take, by preference, a

motor-car or motor-cycle, which are wonderful instruments of affliction and which

put the
great

fiercest questions to
life

fortune in the

game of

and death.

Suddenly,

for no reason, at the turn of the road, in

the very middle of the long, wide highway,

at the top of a descent, here or there,

on

the right or on the

left,

seizing the brake,

the wheel, the steering-handle, unexpectedly

barring

all space,

assuming the deceptive

and perfectly transparent appearance of a

tree, a wall, a rock,

an obstacle of one sort

or another, stands death, face to face, towering, unforeseen, huge,

immediate, indubitiand, with a

able,

inevitable,

irrevocable,
i8i

The Measure
click,
it

of the Hours
life,

shuts off the horizon of

.

which

leaves without outlet.

Forthwith,

an

eager

and interminable

scene, contained within half a second, sets in

between our intelligence and our

instinct.

The

attitude of our intelligence, our reason,

our consciousness, by whatever

please to call
it, is

name you
It

extremely interesting.

decides instantaneously, sanely and logically

that
all is irretrievably lost.

Yet

it

displays

neither madness nor terror.

catastrophe, with all
its
It

It pictures the

details
realises

and consewith conit

quences, exactly;

and

tentment that
preserves
its

it is

not afraid and that

lucidity.
it

Between the

fall

and

the collision,
it

has time to
it

rest, it reflects,

diverts itself,
all

finds leisure

wherein to

think of

manner of other
to

things, to call
trifling

up memories,

make comparisons,
tree

and accurate observations: the

which

we

see

through death
its

is

a plane-tree, there
. . .

are three holes in

patterned bark.

182

The Psychology
It
.
.

of Accident
one
in the garden.

is
.

not so

fine as the

The
is
.
.

rock on which our skull will be

broken
marble.
is

veined with mica and very white

.

Our

intelligence feels that

it

not responsible, that

it

we have

nothing to
it

reproach

with;

it

is

almost smiling,

enjoys an ambiguous sensation of pleasure

and awaits the

inevitable with a

tempered

resignation mingled with prodigious curiosity.

IV
It is

evident that,

if

our

lives

had only the

intervention of this indolent, this too-logical

and too-clearsighted

dilettante to rely upon,

every accident would be fated to end in

disaster.

Luckily,

warned by the

nerves,
like

which whirl,
terrified

lose their heads

and bawl

children,

another figure bounds

upon the
muscular

stage, a rugged, brutal, naked,

figure,

elbowing

its

way and

seiz-

ing with an irresistible gesture such rem183

The Measure of
come within
not what
its

the

Hours

nants of authority and chances of safety as

reach.

We

call it instinct,
:

the unconscious, the subconscious

it

matters

we

call

it.

Where was
It

it

Where

does

it

come from?
deep down

was somewhere and thank-

asleep or else busied with dingy

less tasks

in the primitive cavit

erns of our body.

Once

was that body's

uncontested king, but, for some time since,

has been relegated to the lower darkness as

an

ill-bred, ill-dressed, ill-spoken

poor

rela-

tion, a

troublesome and often disagreeable

witness of our original misfortune.

We no

longer think of
to
it,

it,

no longer have recourse

save in the desperate seconds of our

Fortunately,
it

supreme anguish.
decent nature,
is

has a

utterly unselfish

and bears
all

no grudge.

Instinct

knows, besides, that

those ornaments from the height of which

we

look

down upon and

despise

it

are

ephemeral and frivolous and

itself is

that, in reality,

the sole master of the

184

human

dwell-

The Psychology
ing.

of Accident
is

With

a glance that

surer

and swifter
peril, it

than the tremendous onrush of the

takes in the situation, then and there unravels all

its details,

issues

and

possibilities

and, in a

trice,

affords a magnificent, an

unforgettable spectacle of strength, courage,

precision
life
flies

and

will,

in

which unconquered

at the

throat of unconquerable

death.

This champion of
like the

existence,

upstarting
fairy-tales

shaggy savage of the

who comes
princess,

to the rescue of the disconsolate

in the strictest, the

works miracles

most precise sense of the word.

all,

Above
has one

under pressure of

necessity,
:

it

incomparable prerogative
of deliberation, of
raises,
all
all

it

knows nothing
it

the obstacles which

it

the impossibilities which

im-

poses.

Instinct never accepts disaster, not

for a

moment admits
i8s

the inevitable and,

The Measure of
when on

the Hours
smashed
all

the point of being

to

atoms, acts cheerfully against

hope, as

though doubt, anxiety,

fear,

discourageto the

ment were notions absolutely foreign

primitive forces that quicken
a granite wall
it
It.

Through

sees nothing but safety, like

;

a cranny of light
creates
it

and, by dint of seeing

It

it,

In the stone.

does not abandon

is

the hope of stopping a mountain that

rushing

down upon
upon a

It.

It thrusts aside

rock, darts

wire, slips between

two

columns which were mathematically too

close together to
trees,
it

admit

Its

passage.

Among
has

chooses infallibly the only one that

will yield because an invisible

worm

gnawed
leaves,
it

Its

root;

amid

a cluster of vain

discovers the one strong branch

that overhangs the abyss; and. In a heap

of sharp

flints, it is

as

though

instinct

had

prepared

In anticipation the
Is

bed of moss
.

and ferns that

to receive the body.

The danger

once past, reason, stupefied,

186

The Psychology
concerted, turns
its

of Accident
little dis-

gasping for breath, unbelieving, a

head to take a

last

look

at the improbable.

Then

it

resumes the

lead, as of right, while the

good savage,

that no one dreams of thanking, returns in

silence to
its

cave.

VI
Perhaps
it is

not surprising that instinct

should save us from the great habitual and

immemorial dangers water,

:

fire,

falls, col-

lisions,

animals.

There

is

here, evidently, a

long custom, an ancestral experience to explain

its skill.

But what amazes me

wherewith
it

is

the

ease, the quickness

itself

acquaints

with the most complicated, the most

unusual inventions of our intelligence.

We
it

have only, once and for

all,

to

show

the

mechanism, the use and the purpose of the

most unexpected machine, however foreign

and

useless to

our real and primitive needs

187

The Measure
instinct

of the Hours

understands; and, from that moit

ment, in an exigency,

will
its

know

the

machine's last secrets and

management
which con-

better than does the intelligence

structed

it.

That

is

why,

let

the instrument he as new,

it

as recent or as formidable as

will,
is

we can
no such
un-

safely say that, in principle, there

thing as an inevitable catastrophe.

consciousness
is

Our

always alive and equal to

every imaginable situation.

Between the

jaws of the vice contained

the mountain or the sea,

in the

power of

we

can,

we must
in-

look for a decisive

movement on

the part of

our

Instinct,

which possesses resources as

exhaustible as those of the universe or of

nature,

upon whose

stores

it

draws

at will.

VII

And
longer

yet, if the
all

whole truth be
i88

told,

we no

have the same right to rely upon

The Psychology
its

of Accident
It

sovereign intercession.
is it

never

dies,

never sulks,

never mistaken; but

many

men
mit

banish
it

to such depths, so rarely per-

to catch a glimpse of sunlight, lose

it

sight of

so entirely, humiliate

it

so cruelly,

pinion

it

so closely that, in the

madness of
to look

their dire need, they forget

where

for
in

it.

They have not

it

the material time

it

which to warn

or to release

from the
it
;

dungeon wherein they have chained

when, at
its

and,

last, full
it

of goodwill, armed with

tools,

hurries

up to the
is

rescue, the

mischief

is

done,
its

it

too

late,

death has

completed

work.

These
connected

inequalities of instinct,

which are
with
the

rather,

suppose,

promptness of the appeal rather than with

the quality of the assistance, appear in every
accident.
parallel,

Place

two motorists

In

two

Ineludable and exactly Identical

cases of danger: an Inexplicable touch of

the wheel, a leap, a twist, a turn, a sheer

i8g

The Measure
quiescence, a spell of

of the Hours
some kind
will save

the one, whereas the other will go his nor-

mal and wretched way and be smashed to

pieces against the obstacle.

Of

the six per-

sons in a car,

all strictly

involved in the
the only possible,

same

fate, three will

make

illogical,

unforeseen and necessary move-

ment, while the three others will act with

too
tion.

much
I

intelligence in the

wrong

direc-

once witnessed one of those sur-

prising manifestations of instinct, or nearly

witnessed

it;

for,

although I arrived after

the accident, at least I gathered the throb-

bing impressions on the spot,

injured.
It

among
well

the

was on the descent from Gourlittle village,

don, the rugged

to

known

excursionists

from Cannes and Nice,

perched on a precipitous rock, over two

thousand

feet
pirates.

in

height,
It
is

to

escape

the

Barbary
side;

inacessible

on every
save a
be-

no thoroughfare leads
190

to

it,

terrible

zigzag way, which runs

down

The Psychology of Accident

tween two ravines.
loaded with
eight

tilted

cart,

overa

persons,

including

woman
old,

carrying her child not two months

this

was descending

dangerous road,

when
felt

the horse took fright, ran

away and
passengers
;

darted towards the abyss.

The

themselves rushing to their deaths

and

the

woman, anxious
at the

to save the child

and

obeying an admirable impulse of maternal

love, flung
it,

supreme moment, from

it

the other side of the cart, where

the roadway,

fell

on

while

all

the others disap-

peared

in the precipice bristling

with mur-

derous rocks.

not unusual where

Now, by a miracle which is human lives are at stake,

insiglittle

the seven victims, caught up in brushwood,

in all

manner of boughs, escaped with

whereas the poor
with
its

nificant scratches,

child died

where

it fell,

skull

broken
in-

by a stone on the road.

stincts

Two
a

contrary

had here struggled for the mastery;

glimmer of
re-

and that one with which

191

The Measure
flection

of the Hours

had probably been mingled had

more awkward movement of the
will

made
two.

the

You

speak of good and bad luck.

These mysterious words are permissible,

provided
it

be understood that they are

applied to the mysterious movements of our

unconsciousness.
It
is,

in fact, preferable,

whenever the thing

is

possible, to

throw

back the source of a mystery within ourselves:

we

thus limit to that extent the

in-

auspicious field of error,

discouragement

and impotence.

VIII

We immediately ask ourselves whether we

are able,
if

not to perfect our

instinct,

which

I persist in believing perfect,

at least to
its

recall

it

closer to our will, to unloose

its

bonds, to restore
question

original freedom. This

a special study.

would demand
it

In

the meantime,
that,

appears fairly probable

by drawing habitually and systemat192

The Psychology
all

of Accident
and
facts, to

ically closer to material forces

that which, in a
things,

enormous
which
to

diminish by so

word that expresses we call nature, we can much daily the distance
have to cover This
in

instinct will

order

come

to our aid.

distance, as yet

inappreciable in savages and in simple and

humble men,

increases with every step taken

civilisation.

by our education and

persuaded that
it

am
less

could be proved that a

if

peasant or workman, even

he be the

young and the

the

less active, if

overtaken by

same

disaster as his squire or employer,

has two or three chances more than the

latter of escaping safe
case, there
is

and sound.

In any
vicis

no accident of which the

wrong.

tim

is

not, a priori, in the

It

meet that he should say

is

to himself, what'
in his place,

literally true, that

any other,

would have escaped; consequently, the majority of the risks

which those around him

take remain forbidden to himself.

193

His un-

The Measure
consciousness,
future,
is

of the Hours
his

which here blends with

not "in form."

Henceforth he
the point of
is

must

distrust his luck.

From

view of the great dangers, he

habens, as they used to say in

minus
law.

Roman

IX
For
all this,

when we

consider the lack of

the
it

consistency

of our body,
that surrounds

inordinate

power of

all

and the numourselves,

ber of perils to which

we expose

our luck, compared with that of other living

beings,

must needs appear prodigious.

In

the midst of our machines,

apparatus, our poisons, our
all

our various
our waters, or
less

fires,

the forces which

we have more
our
lives

mastered, but which are always ready to

rise in revolt,

we

risk

twenty or

thirty times oftener than the horse, for instance, the

ox or the dog.

Now,

in a street

or road accident, in a flood, an earthquake,

194

The Psychology of Accident

a storm, a
fire,

in the fall

of a tree or a

house, the animal will almost always be

struck

by preference

to the

man.

It

is

ob-

vious that the latter's reason, his experience

and

his

more prudent

instinct preserve

him

to a great extent.

Nevertheless, one would

say that there must be something more.

Granting equal

risks

and hazards and allow-

ing for intelligence and a

certain instinct, the fact

more
still

skilful

and

remains that

nature seems to be afraid of man.

She

re-

ligiously avoids touching that frail body,

surrounds

it

with a sort of manifest and

unaccountable respect and, when, through

our
hurt

own
us,

arrogant

fault,

we

oblige her to

she does us the least

harm

possible.

IPS

IN PRAISE OF

THE

FIST

IN PRAISE OF

THE

FIST

IT

is

well,

in

the

holiday

season

of

summer, to occupy ourselves with the

aptitudes

of

our

body,

once

more

re-

stored to nature, and, in particukr, with

the
exercises
its

that
agility

most

increase
qualities

its

strength,

and

its

as

the

body

of

fine

animal,
face
all

healthy,
life's

formidable,
igencies.
I

ready to

ex-

remember,

in this connection, that lately,

I

when
self

writing of the sword,^

to

allowed my-

be carried away by

my

subject

and was

guilty of a certain injustice towards

the only specific

'

weapon with which nature

Cf. the essay entitled In Praise of the Sii/ord in

The Double Garden.

Publishers' Note.
199

The Measure
has endowed us
justice I
:

of the Hours
the
fist.

mean
fist

This

in-

am

anxious to repair.
the
if

The sword and

complement and,

form each

other's

the expression be not

too ungracious, can keep house together

on excellent terms.

But the sword

is,

or

should be, only an exceptional weapon, a

sort of ultima et sacra ratio.

We

should

not have recourse to

it

save with solemn

precautions and a ceremonial equivalent to

that wherewith
trials

we surround
is

those criminal

which may end

fist,

in a sentence

of death.

The

on the contrary,

preeminently
the only

the every-day, the

human weapon,

weapon
bility,

organically adapted to the sensi-

the resistance, the offensive and de-

fensive structure of our body.

The
selves,

fact

is

that, if

we

well examine our-

vanity,

we must rank ourselves, without among the most unprotected, the

fragile, the mostbrittle

most naked, the most

and

flaccid beings in creation.

200

Compare

us,

In Praise of the Fist

for instance, with the insect, so formidably

equipped for attack and so fantastically

armour-cased
I

others, the ant,

among upon which you may heap

Contemplate,
apparently
incon-

ten or twenty thousand times the weight

of

its

body without
it.

veniencing

Consider the cockchafer,

the least robust of the beetles, and weigh

what
its

it is

able to carry before the rings of

abdomen crack or
yield.
it

the casings of

its

fore-

wings

As
is,

for the resistance of the

so to speak, unlimited.

stag-beetle,

By

comparison, therefore,

we and

the ma-

jority of
still in

mammals

are unsolidified beings,

the gelatinous state and quite close

to the primitive protoplasm.

alone,

Our

skeleton

which

is

as

it

were the rough sketch

of our definitive form, offers a certain consistency.

But how wretched

is

this skeleton,

which one would think constructed by a

child
I

Look

at

our spine, the basis of our

ill-set

whole system, whose

vertebras hold

201

The Measure of
cage,

the Hours

together only by a miracle, and our thoracic

which presents

only

series

of

diagonals which
the finger-tips.

we hardly dare touch with

Now

it is

against this slack

and incoherent machine, which resembles an

abortive effort of nature, against this pitiful

organism, from which

life

tends to escape contrived

if

on every

side,

that

we have

weapons capable of annihilating us even

we
ity

possessed the fabulous armour-case, the

prodigious strength and the incredible vital-

of the most indestructible

it

insects.

We

have here,

must be agreed,

a very curious

and a very disconcerting aberration, an

initial folly,

peculiar to the

human
by

race, that

goes on increasing daily.

In order to return
all

to the natural logic followed living beings, if

other

we

are permitted to use

extraordinary weapons against our enemies

of a different order,
selves,

we
to

ought,

among

our-

among men,

employ only the

means of attack and defence provided by

In Praise of the Fist

our

own

bodies.

Were mankind to conform

strictly to
fist,

the evident will of nature, the

is

which

to
its

man what

its

horns are to
lion,

the bull and

claws and teeth to the

suffice for all

the

fist

should

our needs of

protection, justice

and revenge.

wiser

race

would forbid any other mode of comes-

bat as an irremissible crime against the

sential laws of the species.

At

the end of a
in

few generations, we should thus succeed

spreading and putting into force a sort of

panic-stricken respect of

human

life.

And

how prompt and how

exactly in accordance

with nature's wishes would be the selection

brought about by the intensive practice of

pugilism, in which
all

the hopes of military

glory would be centred.

after
all,

Now
;

selection

is,

the only really important thing

it is

that claims our preoccupation

the

first,

the greatest and the most eternal of our duties

towards the race.

203

The Measure

of the Hours

II

Meanwhile, the study of boxing gives us

excellent lessons in humility

and throws a
forin-

somewhat alarming
feiture of
stincts.

light

upon the

some of our most valuable

soon perceive that,

We

in all that

concerns the use of our limbs

terity,

agility, dex-

muscular strength, resistance to pain

to the lowest rank of the

we have sunk
mammals we

or the batrachians.

From

this

point of view, in a well-conceived hierarchy,

should be entitled to a modest place be-

tween the frog and the sheep.

The

kick of

the horse, the butt of the bull, the bite of

the dog, are mechanically

perfect.
It

and anatomically

would be impossible to imin-

prove, by the most learned lessons, their

stinctive

manner of using

their

natural

weapons.

But we, the "Hominidas," the

proudest of the primates, do not

to strike a

know how

blow with our

204

fist

We

do not

In Praise of the Fist

know which exactly is the weapon of our kind! Look at two draymen, two peasants who come to blows nothing could
even
:

be more pitiable.

After a copious and

dila-

tory broadside of insults and threats, they

seize each other

by the throat and

hair,

make play with

at

their feet, with their knees,

random,

bite

each other, scratch each

other,

get entangled in their motionless

if

rage, dare not leave go and,

one of them

succeed in releasing an arm, he strikes out

blindly and most often into space a series of
hurried, stunted

and sputtering

little

blows
if

and the combat would never end

treacherous knife,

the

evoked by the shame

of the incongruous sight, did not suddenly,

almost spontaneously leap from the pocket

of one of the two.

On
no

the other hand, watch two pugilists:

useless words,

no gropings, no anger;

the calmness of two certainties that

know

what

lies

before them.
20S

The

athletic attitude

The Measure
the male
all

of the Hours
finest

of the guard, one of the

of which

body

is

capable, logically exhibits

the

muscles of the organism to the

best advantage.
particle

of

From head to foot, not a strength can now go astray.

its

Every one of them has

the full with energy.
plicity

pole in one or
fists

other of the two massive

charged to

And

the noble sim-

of the attack!
the
fruits

Three blows, no
secular

more,

of

experience,

mathematically exhaust the thousand useless possibilities

hazarded by the uninitiated.

unimprovable

Three
blows.

synthetic, irresistible,

As soon

as one of

them frankly
is

touches the adversary, the fight

ended, to

the complete satisfaction of the conqueror,

who triumphs
no wish

so incontestably that he has

to abuse his victory,

and with no

dangerous hurt to the conquered,

who
all

is

simply reduced to impotence and unconsciousness during the time

will to evaporate.

needed for
after, the

ill-

Soon
206

beaten

In Praise of the Fist

man
and

will rise to his feet with

no lasting

damage, because the

his

resistance of his bones

organs
to

is

strictly

and naturally pro-

portioned

the

power of the human

him and brought

weapon him

that has struck

to the ground.

Ill
It

may seem
those

paradoxical, but the fact

is

easily established that the science of boxing,

In

countries

where

It

Is

generally

practised and cultivated, becomes a pledge

of peace and gentleness.

nervousness,

Our

aggressive

our

watchful

susceptibility,

that sort of perpetual state of alarm In

which our jealous vanity moves,

arise,

all

these

at bottom,

from the sense of our

inferiority,

weakness and of our physical

which

toil as best

they

may

to overawe,

with a proud and

Irritable

mask, the men,

often churlish, unjust and malevolent, that

207

The Measure of
surround us
selves

the Hours
that

The more

we

feel our-

disarmed
are

in the face

of attack, the

more

we

tortured by the longing to

prove to others and to persuade ourselves Courthat no one attacks with impunity.
age becomes the more touchy, the more
in-

tractable in proportion as our anxiously-terrified instinct,

is

cowering within the body that

to receive the blows, asks itself

how

the

bout will end.

instinct

What will
the
crisis

this

poor prudent
It
is

do

if

goes badly?
rely in the

upon our
danger.

instinct that

we

hour of

Upon

our instinct devolve the

anxiety of the attack, the care of the defence.

But we have so often

it

in daily life
affairs

dismissed

from the control of

comes

and
its

from the supreme council

that,

when

name
its

is

called,

it

forth

from

retreat like one

grown old
take ?

in captivity

and suddenly dazzled by the

light of day.

What

resolution will
:

it

Where

is it

to strike

at the eyes, the

208

stomach, the nose,

In Praise of the Fist

the temples, the throat ?
is it

And what weapon

It

to choose

the feet, the teeth, the hand,

the elbow,

or the nails?
its

no longer

knows
which

it

wanders about

poor dwelling,

is

about to be defaced; and, while,

it

dotingly,

pulls

them by the

sleeve, cour-

age, pride, vanity, spirit, self-esteem, all the

great and splendid, but irresponsible lords

envenom the stubborn

last,

quarrel,

which

at

after numberless

and grotesque eva-

sions,

ends in an unskilful exchange of

clamorous, blind, ataxic thumps, hybrid and

plaintive,

piteous

and

puerile

and

indefi-

nitely impotent.

He, on the
has

contrary,

who knows
for

the source

of justice which he holds in his two closed

fists

no

need
all,

self-persuasion.

Once and for

emanates
ideal,

he knows.

Longanimity

like a peaceful flower

from

his

but certain victory.

The

grossest

insult

cannot impair his indulgent smile.

first

Peaceably he awaits the

209

act of violence

The Measure
and
is

of the Hours
and any that

able to say to all

offend him,
single

"Thus

far shall you go."

magic movement stops the

insolence.

Why make this movement ? He

to think of
it
it,

ceases even

so certain

is its

efficacy.

And
in

is

with a sense of shame, as of one

defenceless child,
that,

striking a
last

the

extremity,

he at length

resolves to

raise against the

most powerful brute the

its

sovereign hand that regrets beforehand

too-easy victory.

310

THE FORGIVENESS OF
JURIES

IN-

THE FORGIVENESS OF

INJURIES

IT

is

not unprofitable to examine from

time to time the meaning of certain words

which clothe
thoughts

in

an unchangeable garment

that

have

themselves

become

transmuted.

To

take for Instance the

word

"forgive,"

which appears,

at first sight,
in the
it

one of the
this

most beautiful

language: does

word
it?

still,

did

ever possess the sense of

almost divine amnesty which

Is
it

we

assign to

not one of the terms that best set

it

forth the good-will of men, inasmuch as

contains an ideal that has never been real-

ised?

When we

say to one

who
all is

has

in-

jured us, "I forgive you and

ten,"

forgot-

how much truth

is

there at the bottom

213

The Measure
of this speech?

of the Hours
this,

At

most,

which

is

the

only engagement into which

"I shall not try to

we can
in

enter:

harm you

my

turn."

The remainder, which we believe ourselves

to be promising, does not

depend upon our

own
the

will.

It

is

impossible for us to forget

wrong

that has been done us, because

the profoundest of our instincts, that of

self-preservation, has a direct interest in re-

membering

it.

his

The man who, at a given moment, finds way into our lives is never known to
is.

us as he

For us he

is

only an image
in

which he himself outlines

It
is

our memory.

quite true that the life that animates

indefinable, but
It

him has an
revealing

powerful
a

self-

face.

conveys

host

of

promises, which are probably deeper and

more

sincere

than the words or actions

that will erelong belie them.

But

this

great sign has

value.

little

more than an
a

ideal

We

are

in

world wherein,

214

The
as

Forgiveness of Injuries

either through force of circumstances or

the

result

of

an

initial

error,

very

few beings
which
long

live in

accordance with the truth

their presence there foretells.

last,

At

our fretful experience teaches

us to take no further account of this too

mysterious face.
it

A plain,

hard mask covers

all

and bears the impress of

the acts

and

deeds that have affected us.

illumine
colours,
it

Kindnesses

with attractive

and

delicate
it

whereas offences channel

In
reality,
it is

with

deep grooves.
this

only under
recol-

mask, modelled according to the

lection of pleasures or cares, that

we

per-

ceive the

man who
if
is

approaches us; and to

us, that

say to him,

he have offended

we

forgive him
that

tantamount to

telling

him

we do not recognise him.

215

The Measure of
II
It
is

the Hours

a question of

knowing what

influence

this inevitable recognition will

have upon

our relations with the

us.

In

this, as in

so

man who has injured many other respects,

is

as soon as our good-will

roused,
it

its first,

as yet unconscious steps bring

back to the

old road of the religious ideal.

At

the sum-

mit of

this ideal,

we might

set up, as a

sym-

bol, the legendary

group of the Christian

life,
is

woman

burying, at the risk of her

the

execrated remains of Nero.

There
this

no
is

denying that the action of

woman

greater and goes farther beyond

human

rea-

son than the action of Antigone, which

dominates pagan antiquity.

it

Nevertheless,

does not exhaust the limits of Christian

forgiveness.

Suppose that Nero be not

dead, but staggering on the last confines of

life

and that an heroic rescue alone can

save him.

The

Christian will
216

owe him

this

The

Forgiveness of Injuries
though she know for certain
is

rescue, even

that the life which she

will, at the

restoring to

him

same

time, bring back the perserise

cution.

She can

higher

still:

imagine

that she have to choose in the same

moment

of anguish between her brother and the

enemy who

will

doom

her to destruction.

She will reach the topmost summit only by

preferring the enemy.

Ill

Of this
an
count,

ideal,

which

is

sublime even where

it is

Infinite

reward for

taken into ac-

what are we

to think in a

world that

looks for nothing in another world?

At

which of the three superhuman moments

shall

we

call

him mad who

flings

himself

into one of those three abysses of forgive-

ness?

We

shall even to this

day find a
first;

few

traces of footsteps

around the

but no one will

now

stray

around the two

217

The Measure of
others.

the Hours

Let us admit that

we have
away

here
is

a sort of heroic march of faith which

no longer possible

but, taking

faith,

there nevertheless remains, even in the un-

reason of that ideal, something

is

human

that

as

it

were a presentiment of what man

would

like to
let

do

if life

were not so

cruel.

And

us not think that instances of

this kind,

taken from the farthest ends of

Existence

imagination, are idle or absurd.

constantly brings before us equivalents that

are less tragic, but no less difficult;

and

the solution of the humblest cases of conscience depends

upon the

spirit

which preAll that

sides over that of the loftiest.

we imagine on
choice

a large scale will end

by

being realised on a small; and upon the

which

we would make on

the

mountain depends exactly that which we

will

make

in the valley.

218

The

Forgiveness of Injuries

IV
Moreover, we can learn
to

forgive as

completely as the Christian.

We

are

no

more prisoners than he of

this

world which

we

see with the eyes in our head.

his,

We need
escape

only an effort similar to

but directed

towards other gates,

in

order to

from

it.

The

Christian, just like ourselves,

did not

forget

the

injury;
;

he

did not
first

attempt the impossible

but he

pro-

ceeded to drown any desire for revenge

in the divine

immensity.
closely

This divine imis

mensity,

more

considered,

not
in

very different from our own.

reality, are

Both,

but the feeling of the nameless

Religion

immensity wherein we struggle.

raised every soul mechanically, so to speak,

to the heights

which we ought to reach

as

by means of our own strength. But,

of th^ souls which
as yet blind,
it
it

most were

drew

thither

made no
219

vain endeavour to

The Measure of
perceive

the Hours

give them an idea of the truths which

from those

heights.

we They would
contented

not have understood them.

itself

It

with describing to them pictures ap-

propriate and familiar to their blindness,

pictures which, for very different reasons,

produced nearly the same

effects as

the real

vision that strikes us at present.

"We must
it

forgive offences because

God

wishes

and

has Himself set the most complete example

of forgiveness that
ine."
it

is

possible to imagfol-

This command, which we can

eyes,
is

low without opening our

exactly the

same

as that given to us

by the needs and

the profound innocence of all life at the

moment when we contemplate them from

a sufficient height.

And,

if this latter
first,

comas
is

mand

does not, like the

go so far

to urge us to prefer our

enemy because he
it is

our enemy, this

is

not to say that

it

less

sublime, but that

are

addresses hearts which

more

distinterested
220

and minds which

The

Forgiveness of Injuries

have learnt no longer to appraise an ideal

solely according as to
less difficult

whether
In

it

be more or
for

of attainment.

sacrifice,

instance, in penance, in mortification, there

are, in this

way, a whole

series of spiritual

victories

which are more and more painful,

but which are not really higher, because

they rise not in the
in the

human atmosphere, but

void above, where they shine not

only without necessity, but often in a very

hurtful fashion.

The man who

difficult

juggles

with balls of
is

fire

on the point of a steeple

thing; yet
his useless

also

doing a very

no one dreams of comparing

courage with the devotion, nearly always

less

dangerous though
flings

it

be, of the

man

who

himself into the water or the

flames to save a child.

In any case

'and

perhaps more

efficaciously

than the other speaking

the

command

of which
it

we were

dispels all hatred, for

no longer springs
born within our-

from a foreign

will, it is

The Measure of
selves at the sight of
in

the

Hours

an immense spectacle

which men's actions assume their real

place and meaning.

will,

There
injustice

is

no more

ill-

ingratitude,
is

or perversity,

there

not even any more selfishness, in

the magnificent and boundless night wherein

poor beings move, guided by a darkness

which each of them follows

in
is

exceeding
fulfilling

good

faith, believing that

he

duty or exercising a right.

Let us not fear

with so

lest this vision,

together

many

others which are grander

and no

less exact

and which should always

let

be present to our eyes,

it

us not fear lest

victims or

should disarm us and

in a life

make

dupes of us
realities.

of vaster and harsher

There are very few among us

that have need to strengthen their

means

of defence, to whet their prudence, their

222

The

Forgiveness of Injuries
Life's instinct
this

mistrust or their selfishness.

and experience provide for

lavishly.

but too

We are never in danger of losing

All the efforts of a
only with great

our equilibrium on the side opposed to our

petty daily interests.

watchful thought
difficulty to

suffice

keep us

erect.

But

it

is

no

matter for indifference to others and especially to ourselves

whether our movements

of attack and defence are outlined against

the dull background of hatred, contempt

and disenchantment or against the

trans-

parent horizon of indulgence and of the

silent forgiveness that explains

and underlet

stands.

Above
is

all,

as the years pass,

us keep to the

humble

lessons of experience.

There

in these lessons a dull

and heavy

part that belongs by right to instinct and

descends to the necessary clay-soil of

life.

There
it:
it

is

no need to occupy ourselves with

in

buds and multiplies prodigiously

the unfongciows.

But there
223

is

a purer and

The Measure of
more
Every
subtle part

the

Hours

which we must learn to

it

catch and hold before

evaporates in space.

act allows of as as

many
are

different in-

terpretations
in

there

diverse

forces

our intelligence.
first

The

lowest of them

appear at

the simplest, the

most natural
first

and

just,

because they are the

to come,

the idlest, those requiring the least effort.

If

we do
little

not struggle

without respite

against their cunning

and familiar encroach-

ment,
all

by

little

they devour and poison

the hopes, all the beliefs out of which

our youth had formed the noblest and most

fruitful regions of

our mind.

Soon there

would remain

to us,

towards the end of our

days, nothing but the

most miserable

resi-

due of wisdom.

It

is

meet, therefore, that

the loftiest interpretation which

we

can

give of the facts that hustle us at every

moment should
gross treasure

rise in

proportion as the

of the practical sense of

existence accumulates.
224

According as our

The
roots,
it

Forgiveness of Injuries

sense of life increases in the soil by the

is

indispensable

that

it

should

ascend in the light by the fruits and flowers.

It
Is

necessary that an ever-vigilant thought

lift

should incessantly

up, air

and quicken

the dead-weight of the years. Moreover,

experience, seemingly so positive, so practical,

so

easy-going,
sincere,

so

tranquil,
full

so

in-

genuous and so
it

knows

well that
us; and,
its

hides

some

essential thing

from
it

had we the strength

secret retrenchments,

to drive

to

most
to a

we should end
it

certainty

by wringing from

the supreme
all

avowal

that,

upon the upshot and when

is

and everything
tation
is

said, the loftiest interpre-

invariably the truest.

225

CONCERNING "KING LEAR'

CONCERNING "KING LEAR'

easy to prove IT especially since

is

that,

of late years and of

the

the beginning

great romantic period, the realm of poetry

which

had hardly been touched upon

since the definite loss of the vast, but unin-

habitable provinces of the epic

poem

has
in

gradually shrunk in dimensions and become

actually reduced to a

few isolated towns

the mountain.
there, long-lived

It will

probably continue
will

and impregnable, and

all

gain in purity and intensity

that

it

has

lost elsewhere in extent and abundance.

Little

by

little it

will strip itself of

its

vain

didactic,

descriptive

and narrative ornathat

is

ments, soon to be

itself alone,

to say

the only voice that can reveal to us the

229

The Measure of
human

the Hours

things which silence hides

from

us,

which

speech no longer utters and which

music does not yet express.

Lyric poetry will always exist:
mortal, because
it

it

is

im-

is

necessary. But

what

fate has the future or even the present in

store,
I will

not say for the dramatist or

playwright, but for the tragic poet proper,

for the writer

who

strives to

maintain a
repre-

certain lyrical quality in his

work by

senting in

it

things greater and finer than

the things of real life?

It
is

certain that the lyric tragedy of the

Greeks, that classical tragedy as conceived

by Corneille and Racine, that the romantic

tragedy of the Germans and Victor
all

Hugo

derive their poetry

from sources that are

definitely dried up.

The
it

great

drama of
had been
only
the

the crowds, in which

was believed that an

unknown and
discovered,

inexhaustible source

has

hitherto

yielded

mediocre and indifferent

230

results.

And

Concerning "King Lear"

new
mysteries of our

modern
all

life,

which

have taken the place of

the others

and

in

the direction of which Ibsen attempted certarn excavations, these mysteries

have been

for too short a time in direct contact with

man

to erect

and

visibly

and

efficaciously

to govern the

words and

actions of the

character of a play.

And

yet there

is

no

disguising the fact and the poetic instinct of

humanity has always

a

felt its

presentiment:
it is

drama

is

not really true until

life.

greater

and finer than

II

Let

us, in

the interval preceding the time

when

the poets shall

know whither

to turn

their steps, examine one of the

most famous

examples of those dramas which enlarge the

truth without violating
it,

one of those rare

cen-

dramas which,
turies, still

after

more than three

remain green and living

231

in all

The Measure of
their parts
:

the

Hours
King

I allude to Shakspeare's

Lear.
It is safe to declare, as I

once said

not
it
is

without some
impossible to
light
seizes

little

exaggeration, for
in

avoid exaggeration

the

and
all

exquisite attack of fever

which

Shakspeare's devoted admirers

his masterpieces
is

whenever one of

revived

it is

safe to declare, after surveying the

literatures of

every period and of every

country, that the tragedy of the old king

constitutes the mightiest,

the vastest, the

most

stirring,

the most intense dramatic

poem that has ever been written. Were we to be asked from the height of another
planet which
is

the synthetic

and represen-

tative play, the archetypal play of the hu-

man

stage, the play in

which the ideal of

is

the loftiest scenic poetry

ised, it

most

fully real-

seems to

me

certain that, after due

deliberation, all the poets of our earth, the

best judges in this exigency,

232

would with one

Concerning "King Lear"

voice

for a

name King Lear. They could only moment weigh the claims of two or
Greek
stage, or

three masterpieces of the

else

for virtually Shakspeare can be com-

pared with none save himself

of Hamlet Prince of Denmark.

of

that

other miracle of his genius, the tragic story

Ill

Prometheus,

the

Orestes,

CEdipus

Tytrees,

rannus are wonderful but isolated

whereas King Lear

is

a marvellous forest.
is

Let us admit that Shakspeare's poem

clear,

less

not so evident, not so visibly harmoni-

ous, not so pure in outline, not so perfect

in

the rather conventional sense

;

of the

word mous
less

let

us grant that

it

has faults as enor:

as

its

good

qualities
it

this fact

none the

remains, that

surpasses all the others

in

the mass, the rarity, the density,

the

strange mobihty, the prodigious bulk of the

233

The Measure
tragic beauties

of the Hours
it

which

contains.

know

that the total beauty of a

work

is

not to be

estimated by weight or volume; that the

dimensions of a statue do not necessarily

bear a relation to
theless,
it

its aesthetic

value. Never-

cannot be denied that abundance,

vital,
it is

variety

and ampleness add certain

;

unaccustomed elements to beauty that

easier to be successful with

one statue of

middling size and of a calm movement than

with a group of twenty statues of superhu-

man

dimensions,

endowed with passionate

it is

and yet coordinate gestures; that

difficult to

less

write one tragic and mighty act

in

which three or four persons play their

whole moving crowd and which maintain

parts than to write five which are filled with

a

that

same

tragic

and powerful note on an

equal level during a period five times as

long as the other. Well, by the side of King Lear, the longest Greek tragedies are little more than plays in one act.
234

Concerning "King Lear"

On
it

the other hand,

if

we

try to

compare

with Hamlet, we shall probably find that

its

thought

is

less active, less acute, less proless prophetic.

found, less quivering,

way

of compensation, however,

By how much
Certain

more

vigorous, massive and irresistible does

the spirit of the

work appear

clusters, certain rays

of light on the plata

form of Elsinore reach and, for

illumine, like

moment,

gleams from beyond the tomb,

more

inaccessible darknesses; but here the

lights

column of smoke and flame

up
a

in a

permanent and uniform manner

stretch of the night.

whole

The subject is

simpler,

more general and more normally human, the colouring more monotonous, but more
majestically

and more harmoniously

su-

perb, the intensity

more constant and more

illusive

widespread, the lyricism more continuous,

more overflowing and more

and yet
of

more

natural, nearer to the

life,

realities

everyday

more

familiarly stirring, be235

The Measure of
cause
it

the

Hours

springs not

from thought, but from

surrounds a situation
is,

passion,

because

it

which, although exceptional,

less,

nevertheit

universally possible, because

does not

necessarily require a metaphysical hero like

Hamlet and because

man.

it

immediately

affects

the primitive and almost invariable soul of

IV
Hamlet,

Macbeth,

Prometheus,

the

Orestes, CEdipus belong to a class of

poems

which are more exalted than the others because they are unfolded on a sort of sacred

mountain
This
is

girt

about by a certain mystery.

in the

what,

hierarchy of the masincontestably

terpieces,

places

Hamlet
for

above
Othello
and,

Othello,
is

instance,

although

as passionately,

as

profoundly

doubtless,

more
heaven
236

normally

human.
carries

They owe
them

to this

mountain which

between

and

earth

the

Concerning "King Lear"

best part of their

sombre and sublime power.

this
ele-

we examine the formation of mountain, we become aware that the

if

Now,

ments which compose

it

are

borrowed from

a variable and arbitrary supernaturalism

it is

"beyond" of

a contestable character

and appearance, which are But

religious

or

superstitious, transitory, therefore, or local.

and

this

it is

that gives
five

it

a place apart

among

the

four or

great

dramatic
there
is

poems of

the world

in

King Lear

no supernaturalism proper. The gods, the inhabitants of the great imaginary worlds do

not meddle with the action fatality

;

itself is

here quite inward,

is

no more than passion

run mad; and yet the immense drama unravels

its five

acts

on

summit

as high, as

overladen with
anxieties as

spells,
all

poetry and unwonted

the traditional forces
in

though

of heaven and hell had vied

superstruct
original
its

ardour to

peaks.

The

absurdity of the

anecdote

(all

the

great master-

237

The Measure
pieces,

of the Hours

being intended to represent typical

actions of a necessarily far-fetched exclusive

and excessive character, are founded on a

more or less absurd anecdote) disappears

which
developed.

in

the sublime magnificence of the height at

it is

Study more closely

it is

the structure of that summit:

solely

formed
of

of

enormous

human

strata,

gigantic blocks of passion, of reason, of

general

and almost familiar sentiments,

but

overthrown, heaped up, superimposed by

an

awful

tempest,
is

one

profoundly
in

suited to all that

most human

human

nature.

That
est

is

why King Lear remains the youngIt

of the great tragic works, the only one

which time has not withered.

effort of

needs an

our good-will, a forgetting of our

condition and of our present certainties for

us to be sincerely and wholly stirred by the

spectacle of

Hamlet, Macbeth or CEdipus.

238

On

the other hand, the wrath, the roars of

Concerning "King Lear"

pain, the prodigious curses of the old

man,

of the outraged father seem to issue from

our modern hearts and brains they

;

rise
all

up
the

under our own sky and,

;

in respect

of

profound truths that form the

spiritual

and

sentimental atmosphere of our planet, there

is

nothing essential to be added to them,

nothing to be withdrawn from them.

Were

Shakspeare to return among us upon earth,

he could no longer write Hamlet or Macbeth.

He would

feel that the

main august

and gloomy ideas upon which those poems

rest

would no longer carry them, whereas

he would not need to alter a situation nor a

line in

King Lear.

The

youngest, the most unchangeable of

is

tragedies

also the

most organically

lyrical

dramatic

poem

that

was ever
239

realised, the

only one in the world in which the magnifi-

The Measure

of the Hours

cence of the language does not once impair

the probability, the naturalness of the dialogue.
it is

There

is

not a poet but knows that

almost impossible on the stage to ally

beautiful images with natural expression.

There

is

no denying

it:

no scene

in

the

mightiest tragedy or in the most hackneyed

comedy, as Alfred de Vigny

said,

is

ever

more than

a conversation

between two or
to talk of their

three people
affairs.

who have met

They have

therefore to talk; and,

is

in

order to give us that which

the most

necessary illusion on the stage, the illusion

of reality, they must depart as

sible

little

as pos-

from the language employed

life.

in every-

day
life,

But, in this rather elementary

we hardly ever
is

express in words any-

thing that

brilliant or

profound

in

our

inner existence.

If our habitual thoughts

mingle with great and beautiful spectacles, with the highest mysteries of nature, they

remain within ourselves

240

in a latent condition,

Concerning "King Lear"

in a condition

of dreams, of ideas, of mute

at the very most,

feelings which,

betray

themselves sometimes by a word, a phrase

nobler or truer than those of our probable

and usual conversation.

Now,
in life,

the

drama
follows

being able to express hardly anything that

would not be expressed

unformulated there,

it

that all the higher part of existence remains

lest it

should shatter

the indispensable illusion.

The

poet has

therefore to choose: he will be lyrical or

merely eloquent, but unreal (and

this

is

the mistake of our classical tragedies, of

the plays of Victor
all

Hugo and
,

of almost

the French and

German

romanticists, a

few scenes of Goethe excepted)

or else he

will be natural, but dry, prosaic

and

dull.

Shakspeare did not escape the dangers of

this choice.

In
in

Romeo and

Juliet, for in-

stance,

and

most of

his historical plays,

he pours forth into rhetoric and incessantly

sacrifices to the splendour, to the
241

abundance

The Measure of
precision

the Hours

of his metaphors the imperious, essential

and commonplace of every speech

and

cue.

VI

On

the other hand, in his great master-

pieces he

makes no mistake; but the very

which he surmounts the
difE-

manner

in

culty reveals all the gravity of the problem.

He

achieves his end only with the aid of

a sort of subterfuge to which he always resorts.

As

it

seems to be accepted that a hero

its

who

expresses his inner life in all

mag-

nificence

cannot remain probable and human

on the stage except on condition that he be

represented as

mad

in real life

(for

it

is

understood that here the

that hidden
cally
life),

mad

alone express

Shakspeare systematireason

unsettles

the

of

his

pro-

tagonists

and thus opens the dike that held

Hence-

captive the swollen lyrical flood.

forward, he speaks freely by their mouths

242

Concerning "King Lear"

and beauty invades the stage without
ing
lest it

fear-

be told that
also,

it is

out of place.

Henceforward,
great works
less
is

the lyricism of his

less high,

more or

more or

wide

in proportion to the

madness of

his hero.

strained

Thus it is intermittent and rein Macbeth and Othello, because

Thane of Cawdor
Venice are no
it

the hallucinations of the

and the rages of the

Moor of
crises;

more than passional

the Prince of
tative; but

is

slow and

pensive in Hamlet, because the madness of

Denmark

is

torpid and mediit

no otherwhere does

overflow

as in

King Lear,
irresistible,

torrential, uninterrupted

and

hurling together,

in

im-

mense and miraculous images, the oceans,

the forests, the tempests and the stars, be-

cause the magnificent insanity of the dispossessed

and desperate old king extends from

scene to the very
last.

the

first

243

THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE FLOWERS

THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE

FLOWERS

WISH merely to

recall here a
I

few

facts

I known
tribution

to every botanist.

have made

not a single discovery and

is

my

modest con-

confined to a few elementary

I

observations.

need hardly say that

all

have

no intention of reviewing
intelligence

the proofs of
us.

which the plants give

These
es-

proofs are innumerable and continual,

pecially
effort

among
is

the flowers, in which the

life

of vegetable

towards light and

understanding

concentrated.
that
that

Though there be plants and flowers are awkward or unlucky, there is none
is

wholly devoid of wisdom and ingenuity.

All exert themselves to accomplish their

247

The Measure of
work,
all

the Hours

have the magnificent ambition to

overrun and conquer the surface of the

globe by endlessly multiplying that form of
existence

which they represent.

To

attain

this object,

they have, because of the law

that chains
difficulties

them

to the soil, to

overcome

much

greater than those opposed

to the increase of the animals.

And
to

there-

fore the majority of

them have recourse to

machinery,
traps

combinations,

to

which. In regard to such matters as mechanism,

ballistics, aerial

navigation and the

observation of Insects, have often antici-

pated the inventions and acquirements of

man.
II
It

would be superfluous once more

the play of stamens

to trace

the picture of the great systems of floral

fertUisatlon
:

and

pistil,

the seduction of perfumes, the appeal of

harmonious

and

dazzling
248

colours,

the

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

is

concoction of nectar, which

useless to the flower

absolutely

and

is

manufactured

only to

attract

and

retain

from without, the messenger of love

humble-bee,
fly,

butterfly or

moth
.
.

the liberator
^bee,
is

that

to bring to the flower the kiss of the distant, invisible, motionless lover.
.

This vegetable world, which

to us appears

so placid, so resigned, in which all seems acquiescence, silence, obedience, meditation,

is,

on the contrary, that

revolt

in

which impatience,
are the

the

against

destiny

most

vehement and stubborn.

The

essential orits

gan, the nutrient organ of the plant,

root, attaches
it
it

indissolubly to the

soil.

If

be

difficult to

discover

among

the great

laws that oppress us that which weighs

heaviest

upon our
is

shoulders, in the case of

:

the plant there

no doubt

it is

the law that

its

condemns
to
its

it

to immobility

from

birth

death.

Therefore

it

knows
our

better
efforts,

than

we,

who

disseminate
249

The Measure of
against

the Hours

what
its

first

to rise in revolt.

And the

energy of

fixed idea,

mounting from the

an incom-

darkness of the roots to become organised

and full-blown

in the flower, is

parable spectacle.

It exerts itself

wholly

with one sole aim: to escape above from

the fatality below, to evade, to transgress the heavy and sombre law, to set itself free,
to shatter the

narrow sphere, to invent or

it

invoke wings, to escape as far as

can, to

conquer the space in which destiny encloses

it,

to approach another

kingdom, to peneactive world.

its
. .
.

trate into a

moving and
it

Is the fact that

attains

object not as
to succeed in
different

surprising as though

we were

living outside the time

which a

destiny assigns to us or in
into a universe freed

making our way

from the weightiest

shall see that the

laws of matter?
flower sets

We

man

a prodigious example of

insubmission, courage, perseverance

genuity.
If

and

in-

we had

applied to the removal

250

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

us,

of various necessities that crush

pain, old age

such as

and death, one-half of the

little

energy displayed by any

gardens,

flower in our

we may

well believe that our lot

would be very

different

from what

it is.

Ill

This need of movement,

space,
is

this craving for

among
It
is

the greater

number of

plants,

manifested in both the flower and the

easily explained in the fruit, or,

fruit.

in

any

case, discloses only a less

complex

experience and foresight.

Contrary to that
animal kingdom

which takes place

in the

and because of the

terrible

law of absolute

immobility, the chief and worst

enemy of

the seed

is

the paternal stock.

We

are in

a strange world, where the parents, unable

to

move from

place to place,

know
stifle

that
their

they are condemned to starve or

offpring.

Every seed that

is

falls at the

foot

of the tree or plant

either lost or

doomed

2SI

The Measure of
mense
effort to

the Hours

to sprout in wretchedness.

Hence

the im-

throw

off the

yoke and con-

quer space.

Hence

the marvellous systems

of dissemination, of propulsion, of navigation of the air

in the forest

which we

find
:

on every

side

and the plain

among

others,

to mention, in passing, but a

few of the

most
the

curious, the aerial screw or

samara of

Maple; the bract of the Lime-tree; the

and the Salsa fy; the detonating springs

flying-machine of the Thistle, the Dandelion

of the Spurge; the extraordinary squirt of

the

Momordica; the hooks of

;

the erio-

philous plants

and a thousand other unex-

pected and astounding pieces of mechanism

for there
is

not, so to speak, a single seed

its

but has invented for

sole use a complete

method of escaping from the maternal

shade.
It

would,

in

fact,

be impossible,
little

if

one

had not

practised a

botany, to believe

the expenditure of imagination and genius

252

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

verdure that gladdens our eyes.

in all the

Consider, for instance, the charming seedpots of the Scarlet Pimpernel, the five valves

of the Balsam, the

the Geranium.
sion, to

five

bursting capsules of

Do
any

not forget, upon occa-

examine the common Poppy-head,

find at
herbalist's.

which we

This good,

big head shelters a prudence and a foresight that deserve the highest praise.

We

know
seeds.

that

it

holds thousands of tiny black

is

Its object

to scatter this seed as

dexterously and to as great a distance as

possible.

If the capsule containing

it

were

to split, to fall

or to open underneath, the

precious black dust would form but a useless

heap
Its

at the foot of the maternal stalk.

is

But

only outlet

through apertures con-

trived right at the top of the capsule, which,

when
and

ripe,

bends over on

its

peduncle, sways

like a censer at the least breath of

literally

wind
with

sows the seeds

in space,

the very action employed by the sower.

253

The Measure of

the Hours

Shall I speak of the seeds which provide

for their dissemination by birds

and which,

to entice them, as in the case of the Mistletoe,

the Juniper, the Mountain-ash, lurk

inside a sweet

husk ?

We see here displayed

final causes

such a powerful reasoning faculty, such a

remarkable understanding of
that

we hardly dare dwell upon

the subject,

for fear of repeating the ingenious mistakes

of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre.
facts can

And

yet the

be no otherwise explained.
is

The
is

sweet husk

of no more use to the seed

than the nectar, which attracts the bees,

to the flower.

The

bird eats the fruit be-

cause

it

is

sweet and, at the same time,

is

swallows the seed, which

indigestible.

He

flies

away and, soon

after, ejects the

seed in the same condition in which he has

received
it,

but stripped of

its

case

and

ready to sprout far from the attendant

dangers of
its

birthplace.

254

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

IV
But
let us

return to simpler contrivances.

Pick a blade of grass by the roadside, from

the
first

tuft that offers,

and you

will per-

ceive an independent, indefatigable, unex-

pected

little

intelligence at work.

Here, for

instance, are

two poor creeping plants which

you have met a thousand times on your

walks, for

we

find

them

in every spot,

down
two

to the most ungrateful corners to which a

pinch of

soil

has strayed.

They
in

are

varieties of wild

Lucern or Medick (Mediweeds"

the humblest

cago) , two

"ill

sense of the word.

flower,

One
little

bears a reddish

the other a

yellow ball the

size of a pea.

To

see

them crawling and

would

hiding

among

the proud grasses, one

never suspect that, long before the

illustri-

ous geometrician and physician of Syracuse,

they had discovered the Archimedean screw

and endeavoured

to apply
2SS

it

not to the

rais-


The Measure of
the Hours

ing of liquids, but to the art of flying.

They

lodge their seeds in light spirals with three

or four convolutions, admirably constructed
to delay their fall and, consequently, with

the help of the wind, to prolong their jour-

ney through the

air.

One of them,

the

yellow, has even improved

upon the appapoints, with

it,

ratus of the red by furnishing the edges of

the spiral with a double

row of

the evident intention of hooking

on

its

passage, to either the clothes of the pedestrians or the fleece of the animals. It clearly

hopes to add the advantages of eriophily

that
is

to say the dissemination of seed

by

sheep, goats, rabbits

and so on

to those of

anemophily, or dissemination by the wind.

The most touching side of this great effort is its futility. The poor red and yellow
Lucerns have blundered.
able screws are of

Their remark-

no use to them: they

fell

could act only

height,

if

they

from a

certain
tree or

from the top of some lofty

256

The
tall

Intelligence of the Flowers

but, constructed as they are

Graminea;

on the

level of the grass, they

have hardly

taken a quarter of a turn before already

they touch the ground.

We

have here a

curious instance of the mistakes, the gropings, the experiments

and the frequent

little

miscalculations of nature; for only those

who have

studied nature but very

errs.

little will

maintain that she never

Let us observe,
varieties of the

in

passing,

that other

Lucern (not to speak of the

Clover, another papilionaceous Le^Mmmoja,

almost identical with that of which we are

now

speaking) have not adopted this flying

apparatus, but keep to the primitive meth-

ods of the pod.

In one of them, the Medi-

cago aurantiaca, we very clearly perceive

the transition from the twisted

pod

to the

screw

or

spiral.

Another
or

variety,

the

Medicago
rounds
its

scutellata,

Snail-medick,
ball.

screw in the form of a

therefore, that
as?

It

would seem,

we

are assist-

The Measure

of the Hours

ing at the stimulating spectacle of a sort

of work of invention, at the attempts of a

family that has not yet settled
its

destiny

and
its

is

seeking for the best

way

of ensuring

future.

Was
the

it

not perhaps, in the

course of this search that, having been deceived

in
spiral,

the yellow
to
it,

Lucern
itself,

added points or hooks

not
unreasonably,

saying to
its

that,
it is

since

leaves

attract the sheep,

inevitable

and right

that the sheep should assume the care of

its

progeny? And,

lastly, is

it

not thanks to

this

new

effort

and

to this

happy thought
is

that the Lucern with the yellow flowers

infinitely

more widely

distributed than

its

sturdier cousin

whose flowers are red ?

It is in the

not only in the seed or the flower, but

whole

plant, leaves, stalks

if

and

roots,

that

we

discover,

we
258

stoop for a

moment

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

over their humble work,

many

traces of a

prudent and quick intelligence.

Think of

the magnificent struggle towards the light

of the thwarted branches, or the ingenious

and courageous

strife

of trees in danger.

As

for myself, I shall never forget the ad-

mirable example of heroism given

me

the

other day in Provence, in the wild and delightful gorges of the

Loup,

all

fragrant

with
tree.

violets,

by a huge centenarian Laurelto read

It

was easy

on

its

twisted

and, so to speak, writhing trunk the whole

drama of its hard and tenacious

life.

A bird

or the wind, masters of destiny both, had

carried the seed to the flank of the rock,

which was
tain;

as perpendicular as an iron curtree

and the and

was born

there,

two

hundred yards above the

sible solitary,

torrent, inacces-

among
the

the burning and

first

barren stones.
sent
its

From

hour,

it

had
But

blind roots on a long and painful

soil.

search for precarious water and

259

The Measure of
this

the Hours
species

was only the hereditary care of a

that

knows

the aridity of the South.

to solve a

The

young stem had

from

much graver
it

and more unexpected problem:

a vertical plane, so that

started
top, in-

Its

stead of rising towards the sky, bent

down

over the gulf.

It

was obliged, therefore,

notwithstanding the increasing weight of

Its

branches, to correct the

its

first flight,

stub-

bornly to bend

disconcerted trunk in the

close to the rock

form of an elbow
like a

and

thus,

swimmer who throws back

his head,

by means of an incessant
contraction to hold
leaves straight
its

will, tension

and

heavy crown of

up

into the sky.

all

Thenceforward,

the preoccupations, all

the energy, all the free and conscious genius

of the plant had centred around that vital

knot.

The

monstrous, hypertrophled elbow

revealed, one

by one, the

successive solici-

tudes of a kind of thought that

to profit

knew how
it

by the warnings which

260

received

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

rains

from the

and the storms.

Year by

year, the leafy

dome grew
while
a

heavier, with no
itself

other care than to spread

light

out in the

and

heat,

hidden canker

gnawed deep
ported
it

into the tragic

arm

that supI

in space.

Then, obeying
instinct,

know

not what order of the

roots,

two stout

two

fibrous cables, issuing

from the

trunk at more than two feet above the

elbow, had come to
wall.

moor

it

to the granite

Had

they really been evoked by the

tree's distress

or were they perhaps waitfirst

ing providently, from the

day, for the

acute hour of danger, in order to Increase

the value of their assistance?

a

happy accident?

Was it only What human eye will

ever assist at these silent dramas, which are

all

too long for our short lives ?^

' Let us compare with this the act of intelligence of another root, whose exploits are related by Brandis in

his

the earth,
to

Ueber Leben und Polaritdt. In penetrating into in order it had come upon an old boot-sole cross this obstacle, which, apparently, the root was
:

261

The Measure of
VI

the Hours

Among

the vegetals that give the most

striking proofs of intelligence

and initiative,

the plants which might be described as "ani-

mated" or "sentient" deserve

in detail. I will

to be studied
recall the

do no more than

delightful nervous terrors of the Sensitiveplant, the shrinking

Mimosa with which we

There are other herbs
that

are all acquainted.

endowed with spontaneous movements

are not so well known, notably the
rea,

Hedysagyrans,

among which

the

Hedysarum
little

or Moving-plant, acts in a very restless and

surprising fashion. This

Leguminosa,

which

is

native

of Bengal, but often

cultivated in

our hothouses, performs a

sort of perpetual
the
first

and

intricate
road,

dance in
it

of its kind to find upon

its

subdivided
left in

itself into as

many

parts as there
;

were holes

the

sole

by the

stitching needle

then,

when

the obstacle

was overcome,
its

it came together again and united all divided radicles into a single homogeneous tap-root.

262

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

light.
Its leaves are

honour of the

divided

into three folioles, one

wide and terminal,

the two others narrow and planted at the

base of the

first.

Each of
different

these leaflets

is

animated with a

movement of

its

own.

They

live in a state of rhythmical,

almost chronometrical and continuous agitation.

They

are

so

sensitive

to

light

that their dance flags or quickens accord-

ing as the clouds veil or uncover that corner

of the sky which they contemplate.

are, as

They

we

see, real

photometers; and this

long before Crook's discovery of the natural otheoscopes.

VII
But these
plants, to

which should be added

the Droseras,theDionaeas and

many

others,
little

are nervous plants that already go a

beyond the mysterious and probably imaginary ridge that separates the vegetable
263

The Measure of
sary to seek so high; and
intelligence

the Hours
It is

from the animal kingdom.

not neces-

we find as much and almost as much visible sponend of the world which

taneity at the other

we

are considering, in the low-lying places

is

where the plant

or stone.

hardly distinct from clay

class

We

have here the fabulous

of the Cryptogamia, which can be studied

only under the microscope, for which reason

we

will pass

it

by

in silence,

although the

work of
delicacy

the sporules of the

is

Mushrooms,
in its

Ferns and Horse-tails

incomparable

and ingenuity. But, among the aquathe inhabitants of the original

less secret

tic plants,

ooze and mud, we can see

performed.

marvels

As

the fertilisation of their

flowers cannot be accomplished underwater,

each of them has thought out a different sys-

tem

to allow of the dry dissemination of the

pollen.

Thus, the Zosteras, that

is

to say,
stuff

the

common Sea-wrack with which we

264

our beds, carefully enclose their flower in

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

a regular diving-bell; and the Water-lilies

send theirs to blossom on the surface of the

pond, supporting and feeding

it

at the top

of an endless stalk, which lengthens as the

level of the

water

rises.

The Villersia
rise to

nynt-

phoides, having no expanding stalk, simply

lets its flowers

go: they

the surface
nutans,

and burst

like bubbles.

The Trapa

or Water-caltrop, supplies them with a sort

of inflated tumour they shoot up and open.

:

Then, when the

fertilisation
is

is

accomplished,

the air in the tumour

replaced by a muci-

laginous

fluid,

heavier than the water, and

the whole apparatus sinks back again to the

slime,

where the

fruits ripen.
is

The
scribes

system of the Utricularia

even
de-

more complicated. M. Henri Bocquillon

it

in his

Fie des Plantes:

"These

plants,

which are common

in

ponds, ditches, pools and the puddles of

peat-bogs, are not visible in winter,
26s

when

The Measure
trailing stalk
is

of the Hours
Their long,
slim,

they He on the mud.

furnished with leaves reaxilla

duced to ramified filaments.

of the of

At the leaves thus transformed, we see

a sort

little

pyriform pocket with an aperture

in its

pointed upper end.

This aperture has

a valve, which can be opened only outside inwards

;

from the

its

edges are provided with

ramified hairs;
is

the inside of the pocket

little

covered with other

it

secretory hairs

which give

the appearance of velvet.

When the moment of efforescence

the axillary utricles
fill

has come,

with air: the more

this air tends to escape, the

more

tightly

it

closes

the valve.

The
It

result

is

that

it

imparts a great specific buoyancy to the

plant and carries
to the surface of the

water.
little

Not

till

then do those charming

re-

yellow flowers come into blossom,

little

sembling quaint
less

mouths with more or

swollen lips and palates streaked with

lines.

orange or rubiginous
266

During the

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

dis-

months of June, July and August, they

the

play their fresh colours gracefully above

muddy

water,

amid the vegetable decay

fertilisation

around them.

But

has been

ef-

fected, the fruit develops, all things play a

different part: the

ambient water presses

it in,

upon

the valve of the utricles, forces

rushes into the cavity, weighs

plant and compels
it

down

the

to descend to the

mud

again."

Is

it

not interesting to see thus gathered

little

in

this

immemorial

apparatus some of

the most fruitful and recent of human inventions

:

the play of valves or plugs, the pres-

sure of fluids

and

air,

the Archimedean
to account?

principle studied

and turned

As

the author

observes,

whom we have just quoted "The engineer who first attached

little

a rafting apparatus to a sunk ship

thought that a similar process had been in

use for thousands of years."
267

In a world

The Measure of
of intelligence,

the Hours
destitute

which we believe unconscious and

we begin by imagining that the least of our ideas creates new combinations and relations. When we come to look
into things

more

closely,
is

it

appears

infinitely

probable that

it

impossible for us to

create anything whatsoever.

last

We

are the

comers on

this earth,

we

simply find

what has always

children,
life
is

existed and, like astonished

we
it

travel again the road

which
all

had

travelled before us.

is

When

said,

very natural and comforting

that this should be so.

to this point.

But we

will return

VIII

We

must not leave the aquatic plants

briefly

without

mentioning

the

life

of

the most romantic of

them

all:

the legen-

dary Vallisneria,
nuptials

an hydrocharad whose
In the

form the most tragic episode

268

The
is

Intelligence of the Flowers

love-history of the flowers. a

The

Vallisneria

rather insignificant herb, possessing

none of the strange grace of the Water-lily

or of certain submersed verdant plants. But
it

seems as though nature had delighted

it

in

giving
ence
is

a beautiful idea.

Its

whole

exist-

spent at the bottom of the water, in

a sort of half-slumber, until the the wedding-hour comes, a

moment of
it

when
its

aspires to

new

life.

Then
floats

the female plant slowly

uncoils the long spiral of

peduncle,

rises,

emerges and

and blossoms on the

sur-

face of the pond.

From

a neighbouring
it

stem, the male flowers, which see

through

the sunlit water, rise in their turn, full of

hope,

towards the one that rocks, that

awaits them, that calls them to a fairer

world.

But,

when they have come

half-

way, they
back: their
life, is

feel themselves
stalk, the

suddenly held

very source of their

too short; they will never reach the

light, the only spot in
269

abode of

which the

The Measure of
achieved!
Is there

the

Hours
pistil

union of the stamens and the

.

can be

any more cruel inadvertence or

Picture the tragedy of
inaccessible

ordeal in nature?
that longing,
attained,

the

so

nearly
the
1

the

transparent

fatality,

impossible
It

with

not

visible

obstacle

would be

insoluble, like

our

own
it.

tragedy

upon

this earth,
is

were

it

not that an unex-

pected element

mingled with

Did
is

the

males foresee the disillusion to which they

would be subjected?
that they have locked

One
up

thing

certain,

in their hearts a

bubble of

air,

even as

we

lock up in our

souls a thought of desperate deliverance. It

is

as

though they hesitated for a moment;

then, with a magnificent effort, the finest,

the most supernatural that I the pageantry of the insects

in

know

of in

all

and the

flowers,

order to

rise to

happiness they deliberto

ately break the

life.

bond that attaches them

themselves
270

They

tear

from

their

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

flight,

peduncle and, with an incomparable

amid bubbles of

gladness, their petals dart

up and break the surface of the water.

Wounded
less brides

to death, but radiant

and

free,

they float for a

moment

beside their heedis

and the union

accomplished,
to perish,

whereupon the victims

her corolla,
rolls

drift

away

while the wife, already a mother, closes

in

which
spiral

lives their last breath,

up her

and descends

to

the

depths, there to ripen the fruit of the heroic

kiss.

Must we
is

spoil this

charming

picture,

which

strictly accurate,
light,

but seen from the side

at
it

of the

by looking

also

from that

of the shadow?

Why

not?

There are
This

sometimes on the shady side truths quite as

interesting as those

on the bright.
perfect only

delightful tragedy

is

when we
indi-

consider the intelligence and the aspirations

of the

species.

But,

when we observe
them
act
271

viduals,

we

shall often see

awk-

The Measure
wardly and
plan.
in the

of the Hours
in this ideal

wrong way

At one

time, the

male flowers

will

ascend to the surface

when

there are not

yet any pistilled flowers near.

At

another,

when

the low water

would permit them

and to no purpose
here once more

easily to join their companions, they will

nevertheless mechanically

break their

stalks.

We

establish the fact that all genius lies in the

species,

in life
is

or in nature, whereas the In

individual

nearly always stupid.

man
pre-

alone does a real emulation exist between

the two intelligences, a
cise,

more and more

more and more

active tendency towards

is

a sort of equilibrium which

secret of

the great

our future.

IX
The
parasitic plants, again, present curi-

ous and crafty spectacles, as in the case of

the astonishing Cuscuta,
272

commonly

called

The
has
its

Intelligence of the Flowers

It

the Dodder.

has no leaves and no sooner

;

stalk attained a

few inches
its

in

length

than

it

voluntarily abandons
its

roots to

twine about
it

chosen victim, into which

digs

its

suckers.

Thenceforth,
prey.
;

it

lives

exclusively
is

upon

its

Its perspicacity

not to be deceived

it

will refuse
it

any sup-

port that does not please

and will go some

distance, if necessary, in search of the stem

of
its

Hemp, Hop, Lucern

temperament and

or Flax that

suits

its taste.

This Cuscuta naturally

to the Creepers,

calls

our attention

which have very remark-

able
to

habits

and which deserve a word

themselves.
little

Those of us who have

in

lived a

the country have

often
the

had occasion
sort of

to admire

the instinct,

power of

vision, that

directs the

tendrils of the Virginian Creeper or the

Convolvulus towards the handle of a rake

or spade resting against a wall.

Move

the

rake and, the next day, the tendril will have

273

The Measure
Schopenhauer,
in

of the Hours

turned completely round and found it again.

his
treatise

Ueber den
on

JVillen in der Natur, in the chapter devoted

to the physiology of plants, recapitulates

this point

and on many others a host of ob-

servations

and experiments which

I

it

would

take too long to set out here.

therefore

refer the reader to this chapter,

will find

where he

numerous sources and references

marked out for him.

Need

add

that, in

the past sixty or seventy years, these sources

have been strangely multiplied and

sides, the subject is

that, be-

almost inexhaustible?

Among
fices

so

many

different inventions, artilet

and precautions,

us mention also,

for instance, the foresight displayed

by the

Hyoseris radiata, or Starry Swine's-succory,

a
little

yellow-flowered plant, not unlike the

Dandelion and often found on the walls of

the Riviera.

In order to ensure both the

its

dissemination and the stability of

race,

it

bears at one and the same time two kinds of

374

The
seeds: are

Intelligence of the Flowers

the
first

are easily

detached and
to

furnished with wings wherewith

abandon themselves

to the wind, while the

others have no wings, remain captive in the

inflorescence
latter
is

and are

set free only

when

the

decomposed.

The

case of the

Xanthium spinosum, or

Spiny Xanthium, shows us

how

well-condisis

ceived and effective certain systems of

semination can be.

This Xanthium
with

hideous
prickles.

weed,

bristling

barbaric
in

Not long

ago,

it

was unknown
owes

Western Europe and no

dreamt of acclimatising

one, naturally,
it.

had
con-

It

its

quests to the hooks which finish off the capsules of its fruits
fleece
it

and which cling

to the

of the animals.

native of Russia,

came

to us in bales of

wool imported

from the depths of the Muscovite steppes

and one might follow on the map the stages
of this great emigrant which has annexed a

new

world.
275

The Measure of
The
simple
little

the

Hours

Silene Italica, or Italian Catchfly, a

white flower, found in abunolive-trees,

dance under the

has set

its

thought working

in

another direction.

Ap-

parently very timorous, very susceptible, to

avoid the

visits
it

of importunate and
furnishes
its

in-

delicate insects

stalks with

glandular hairs, whence oozes a viscid fluid

in

which the parasites are caught with

such success that the peasants of the South

use the

plant

as

fly-catcher

in

their

houses.

Certain kinds of Catchflies, more-

over, have ingeniously simplified the sys-

tem.

Dreading the ants

it

in particular,

they

discovered that

was enough,

in

order to

prevent them from passing, to place a wide

viscid ring

under the node of each

stalk.

This

is

exactly

what our gardeners do

a circle

when they draw

of tar around

the trunk of the apple-trees to stop the ascent of the caterpillars.

This leads to the study of the defensive

276

The
cellent

Intelligence of the Flowers

plants.

means employed by the

which

In an ex-

popular work, Les Plantes originates,

I refer

to

the reader

who

wishes for

fuller details,

M.

Henri Coupin examines

startling

some of these quaint and

weapons.

We

have

first

the stimulating question of

the thorns, concerning which

a student at the Sorbonne,

M.

Lothelier,

has

made

number of

interesting experiments, result-

ing in the conclusion that shade and

damp

tend to suppress the prickly parts of the

plants.

On

the other hand, whenever the

it

place in which

grows

is

dry and burnt by

its

the sun, the plant bristles and multiplies

spikes,

as

though

it

felt that,

as almost

the sole survivor

the hot sand,
it

among
is

the rocks or in

called

upon
its

to

make

a mighty effort to redouble

defences

against an

enemy that no longer has a choice

It
is

of victims to prey upon.

fact,

a remarkable

moreover, that, when cultivated by

man, most of the thorny plants gradually

277

The Measure

of the Hours

lay aside their weapons, leaving the care of

their safety to the supernatural protector

who

has

adopted them

in

his

fenced

grounds.^

Certain plants,

among

others the Bora-

ginea, supply the place of thorns with very

hard

bristles.

Others, such as the Nettle, Others, the Geranium, the

plants
that

add
'

poison.
the

Among
"In
its

themselves, the most striking case

have ceased to defend is that of the Lettuce : wild state," says the author whom I have

mentioned above, "hi we break a stalk or a leaf, we see a white juice exude from it, the latex, a substance formed of different matters which vigorously defend the plant against the assaults of the slugs. On the other hand, in the cultivated species derived from the former, the latex is almost missing, for which reason the plant, to the despair of the gardeners, is no longer able to resist and allows the slugs to eat it."
It
is

nevertheless right to

add

that this latex

is

rarely

lacking except in the

quite abundant

young

plants,

whereas

when

the Lettuce begins to

becomes "cabbage"
it

and when

it

runs to seed.
its life,

Now
at the

it is

especially at the
its

commencement of

budding of

first,

tender leaves, that the plant needs to defend itself

One
loses

is
its

inclined to think that the cultivated

Lettuce

head a

little,

so to speak, and that

it

it

no longer

knows exactly where

stands.

278

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

in

Mint, the Rue, steep themselves

ful odours to

power-

keep

off

the animals.

But the

strangest are those which defend themselves mechanically.

I will

mention only
itself

the Horse-tail, which surrounds

with

a veritable armour of microscopic

silica.

Moreover,

almost

all

the Graminea,

in

order to discourage the gluttony of the

slugs

and

snails,

add lime

to their tissues.

X
Before broaching the study of the complicated forms of apparatus rendered necessary by cross-fertilisation,

among

the thou-

sands of nuptial ceremonies that prevail in

our gardens
ideas of

let

us mention the ingenious

flowers, in

some very simple same

which

the grooms and brides are born, love and

die in the
corolla.

The
:

typical sys-

tem

is

well enough

known
279

the stamens, or

male organs, generally

frail

and numerous,

The Measure
pistil.

of the Hours
and patient

are grouped around the robust

But the

disposition, the form, the

habits of these organs vary in every flower,

as

though

nature

had

thought that

cannot yet become settled, or an imagination that

makes

it

a point of

honour never

to repeat itself.

Often the pollen, when

ripe, falls quite naturally

from the top of

;

the stamens
also,
pistil

upon the

pistil

but very often,

and stamens are of the same

far

height,

or the latter are too

pistil is

away,

or the

twice as tall as they.

Then

come

endless efforts to succeed in meeting.

in the Nettle, the stamens, at

Sometimes, as

the bottom of the corolla, stand cowering

on their stalk: at the moment of

tion, the stalk straightens

fertilisa-

out like a spring

it

and the anther, or pollen-mass, that tops

Sometimes, as
tials

shoots a cloud of dust over the stigma.

in the

Barberry, whose nup-

can be accomplished only in the bright

hours of a cloudless day, the stamens, far

280

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

pistil,

removed from the

are kept against

the sides of the flower by the weight of their

moist glands: the sun appears and evaporates

the fluid and the unballasted stamens

dart upon the stigma.

ferent things again
:

Elsewhere are

dif-

thus, in the Primroses,

the females are by turns longer and shorter

than the males

other flowers,

In the Lily, the Tulip and

the too lanky bride does

what she can

to gather

and

fix

the pollen.

But the most original and

is

fantastic system

that of the

Rue (Ruta graveolens),

tribe.

rather evil-smelling medicinal herb of the

ill-famed
ful

emmenagogic
squat

The

peace-

and

docile stamens,
fat,

drawn up

in a circle

around the
in the

pistil,

wait expectant
the conjugal

yellow corolla.

At

hour, obeying the

command

of the female,

which apparently gives a

sort of call

by

name, one of the males approaches and

touches the stigma.
the
fifth,

Then come
281

the third,

the seventh, the ninth male, until

The Measure of
the whole
service.

the Hours

row of odd numbers has rendered

Next, in the even ranks, comes the

turn of the second, the fourth, the sixth and

so on.

Here

in

verity

is

love to order

This flower which knows how to count appears to

me

so extraordinary that I at

first

refused to believe the botanists; and I was

determined more than once to

merical sense before accepting
ascertained positively that
it

test its nuit.

have

but seldom

makes a mistake.
It
is

superfluous

to

multiply these

in-

stances.

A stroll in

the

woods or

fields will

allow any one to

make

a thousand observa-

tions in this direction, each quite as curious

as

those related by the botanists.

I

But,

before closing this chapter,

would mention
it

one more flower: not that

displays any

extraordinary imagination, but because of

the delightful and easily-perceptible grace

of

its

movement of

love.

I allude to the

Nigella

Damascena,
282

or

Fennel-flower,

The
mist,

Intelligence of the Flowers

:

whose folk-names are charming Love-in-aDevil-in-a-bush,

Ragged-lady;

so

many happy and

it.

touching efforts of popular

little

poetry to describe a

flower that pleases

This plant

is

found

in a

wild state

in the

South, by the roadside and under the olivetrees,

and

is

often cultivated in the

Its

North
is

in

old-fashioned gardens.

blossom

pale blue, simple as a floweret in a primitive painting,

and the "Venus' locks" or

France are the

"ragged locks" that give the Ragged-lady

its

popular name

in

light,

tenuous, tangled leaves that surround the

corolla with a "bush" of misty verdure.

At

the source of the flower, the five expistils

tremely long

stand close-grouped in
like
five

the centre of the azure crown,

queens clad in green gowns, haughty and

inaccessible.
lessly

Around them crowd hopeinnumerous

throng
of
their

the

lovers,

the stamens, which do not come up

to

their knees.

And
283

now,

in

the heart

The Measure of
in the

the Hours

of this palace of sapphires and turquoises,

gladness of the

summer

days, begins

the

drama without words or catastrophe

But

which one might expect, the drama of

powerless, useless, motionless waiting.

the hours pass that are the flower's years:

its

brilliancy fades,

its

petals fall

and the

pride of the great queens seems at last to

bend under the weight of

life.

At

a given

moment,

as

though obeying the

secret

and

irresistible

command

of love, which deems

the proof to have lasted long enough, with

a

concerted and symmetrical movement,

comparable with the harmonious parabolas

of a five-fold jet of water, they
all

together
cull

bend backwards, stoop and gracefully

of their humble lovers.

the golden dust of the nuptial kiss on the

lips

XI
The unexpected abounds
284

here, as

we

see.
in-

A great volume might be written on the

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

telligence of the plants, even as

Romanes
But
this

wrote one on animal

sketch

intelligence.

has

no pretension to become
I

manual of that kind; and

call attention to

wish only to

a few interesting events

in this
little

that

happen beside us

world wherein
too vainglori-

we

think ourselves, a
privileged.

ously,

These events are not

by way of
instances, as
cir-

selected, but taken,

the

random

result of observation and

cumstance.

I propose, however, in these

all

short notes, to concern myself above

with the flower, for

it

is

in the flower that

the greatest marvels shine forth. I set aside,

for the moment, the carnivorous flowers,

Droseras, Nepenthes and the

rest,

which

approach the animal kingdom and would

demand

a special

and expansive

study, in

order to devote myself to the true flower,

the flower proper, which
motionless,
is

believed to be

insentient, passive

and

inani-

mate.
28s

The Measure of
To

the Hours

separate facts from theories, let us

all

speak of the flower as though

realised

that

it

has

had

been foreseen and conceived in

the

manner of men.

We shall see later how

it,

much we must leave to away from it. For the

dowed with reason and
denying that
both
;

how much
it

take

present, let

take

the stage alone, like a splendid princess enwill.

There

is

no

it

appears to be provided with

it

and to deprive

of either

we should
on
its

have to resort to very obscure hypotheses.

It
is

there,

then,

motionless

stalk, sheltering in a

dazzling tabernacle

the reproductive organs of the plant.

parently,
it

Apto

has but to allow the mysterious

union

of the stamens
in

and

pistil

be

accomplished

this

tabernacle

of love.

And many
to

flowers

do so consent.
is

But

many

others there

propounded, big

with awful threats, the normally insoluble

problem of
sult

cross-fertilisation.

As

the re-

of what numberless and immemorial

286

The
isation

Intelligence of the Flowers

experiments did they observe that self- fertil-

that

is

the fertilisation of the stigfalling

ma

by the pollen
it

from the anthers

that surround

in the same corolla

rapidly

induces the degeneration of the species?

They have observed

nothing,

nor profited by any experience.

we are The

told,

force

of things quite simply and gradually elimi-

nated the seeds and plants weakened by

self-fertilisation.

Soon only those survived

which, through some anomaly, such as the

exaggerated length of the

it

pistil,

rendering

inaccessible

to

the anthers, were pre-

vented from

fertilising themselves.

These

exceptions alone endured, through a thou-

sand

revolutions;

heredity
;

finally

deter-

mined the work of chance and the normal

type disappeared.

XII

We

shall see presently

what

light these
let

explanations throw.

For the moment,

287

The Measure

of the Hours
field,

us stroll into the garden or the

to
in-

study more closely two or three curious

ventions of the genius of the flower.
already, without going far

And

from the house,

by the
bees, a

we have

here, frequented

sweet-scented cluster inhabited by a most

skilled mechanic.

There

is

no one, even

among

the least countrified, but

It is

knows the
which

good Sage.

an unpretending Lahiata
flower,

and bears a very modest

snap the rays of the sun
that matter,
varieties,
it

opens violently, like a hungry mouth, to

in passing.

For

presents a large

number of

not

all

of which

detail

have
am

this is a curious

adopted or carried to the

same
But

pitch of perfection the system of fer-

tilisation
I

which we are about

to examine.

concerned here only with the most

Sage, that which, at this
to

common
as

moment,

though

celebrate

spring's passage,
all

covers with violet draperies

the walls of

my terraces of olive-trees.
288

I assure

you that

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

the balconies of the great marble palaces

that await the kings were never
ously,

more

luxuri-

more

happily,

more

fragrantly

adorned.

One seems

to catch the very perits

fumes of the

light of the sun at

strikes,
.

hottest,

when noon-day

To come
upper
lip,

to details, the stigma, or female

is

organ, of the flower

contained in the
in

which forms a sort of hood,

which are also the two stamens, or male

organs.

To

prevent these from fertilising

the stigma which shares the same nuptial

tent, this

stigma

is

twice as long as they,

it.

so that they have no hope of reaching

Moreover,

in

order to avoid any accident,

the flower has

that
is

made

itself

protenandrous,

to say,

the stamens ripen before

the
fit

pistil,

so that,

when

the

female

is

to conceive, the males have already disIt

is

appeared.

necessary,

therefore,

that an external force should intervene to

accomplish the union by carrying a foreign

289

The Measure
tain

of the Hours

pollen to the abandoned stigma.

cer-

number of

flowers, the

anemophilous

flowers, leave this care to the wind.

But
case

the Sage

and

this

is

the

more general
is

is

entomophilous, that

to say,

it

loves

insects

and

relies

upon

their collaboration
it

alone.

Still, it is

quite aware, for

it

knows
chari-

many
it

things, that

lives in a

world where

is

best to expect
It

no sympathy, no

table aid.
fore,
in

does not waste time, thereuseless

making

appeals

to

the

courtesy of the bee.

The

bee, like all that

struggles against death in this world of

ours, exists only for herself

and for her

kind and

is

in

no way concerned to render

a service to the flowers that feed her.

shall she
least

How

be obliged,

in spite

of herself, or at

unconsciously,
oflice?

to

fulfil

her matri-

monial

Observe

the

wonderful

love-trap contrived by the Sage: right at

the back of
a

its

tent of violet silk,

this
is

it distils

few drops of nectar;

the bait.

But,

290

The
two

Intelligence of the Flowers

fluid,

barring the access to the sugary

parallel stalks,

stand

somewhat

similar to the

uprights of a Dutch drawbridge.

the top of each stalk
anther,
is

Right at

a great sack, the

at

overflowing with pollen;

the

bottom, two smaller sacks serve as a counterpoise.

in

When

the bee enters the flower,

order to reach the nectar she has to push

the small sacks with her head.

stalks,

The two
down and
they

which turn on an

axis, at

once topple

over and the upper anthers come touch the sides of the
insect,

whom

cover with fertilising dust.

No

sooner has

the bee departed than the springy pivots

fly

back and replace the mechanism

position ;

in its

first

and

all is

ready to repeat the

work
play:
scene.

at the next visit.

this
is

However,
the

only the
is

first

half of the
in

sequel

enacted

another

In a neighbouring flower, whose

stamens have just withered, enters upon

the stage the
pistil

that awaits the pollen.

291

The Measure
It issues

of the Hours

slowly from the hood, lengthens

out, stoops, curves

down, becomes forked

so

as, in its turn,

to bar the entrance to the

to the nectar, the

tent.

On

its

way

head

of the bee passes freely under the hanging

fork, which, however, grazes her

back and

sides exactly at the spots touched by the

stamens.

The

two-cleft
;

stigma greedily

absorbs the silvery dust

tion
is

and the impregnaIt

is

accomplished.

easy,

for

that matter, by introducing a straw or the

end of

match, to

set the

apparatus going

and

to take stock of the striking

and marall its

vellous combination

and precision of

movements.

The

varieties of the

Sage are very many

five

they number about

hundred

and

will spare
tific

you the majority of their

scien-

names, which are not always pretty:

officinalis

Salvia pratensis,

(our Garden

Sage) ,Horminum, Horminoides, glutinosa,

Sclarea,

Romeri, azurea, Pitcheri, splen292


The
and so
Intelligence of the Flowers
dens (the magnificent Sage of our baskets)
on.

There

is

not, perhaps,

one but

has modified some detail of the machinery

which we have

just

examined.

A fewand

this, I think, is

a doubtful

improvement

have doubled and sometimes trebled the

length of the
pistil,

so that

it

not only

emerges from the hood, but makes a wide

plume-like curve in front of the entrance
to the flower.

They

thus avoid the just-

possible danger of the fertilisation of the

stigma by the anthers dwelling

in the
it

same
hapthat

hood;
pen,
if

but,

on the other hand,

may

the protenandry be not

strict,

the insect, on leaving the flower, deposits on

the stigma the pollen of the very anthers

with which the stigma cohabits.

in the

Others
the an-

movement of

the lever,

make

thers diverge farther apart so as to strike

the sides of the animal with greater precision.

Others,

lastly,

have not succeeded

in

arranging and adjusting every part of the

293

The Measure
mechanism.
I
find,

of the Hours
for instance, not far

from

my

violet Sage, near the well,

under

a cluster of Oleanders, a family of white

flowers

tinted

with' pale

lilac

which
lever.

have no suggestion or trace of a

The stamens and

promiscuously
All seems
I

the stigma are heaped

up

in the

middle of the corolla.

left to

chance and disorganised.

it

have no doubt that

would be

possible,

to

any one collecting the very numerous

varieties of this Lahiata, to reconstruct the

whole

history, to follow all the stages of the

invention,

from the primitive disorder of

the white Sage under

my

eyes to the latest

improvements of the Salvia pratensis.

conclusion are
still

What
the

we

to

draw?

Is the system

in the

experimental stage

among

aromatic tribe?

Has

it

not yet left the

period of models and "trial trips," as in

the case of the

Archimedean screw

in the

Saintfoin family?

Has
294

the excellence of

the automatic lever not yet been unani-

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

mously admitted?
everything
established
;

Can

it

be, then, that

is

not unchangeable and pre-

and are they still discussing and

experimenting in this world which

we

be-

lieve to be fatally, organically regular ?^

'

For nearly four years, I have been engaged upon

taking the usual precautions

a series of experiments in the hybridisation of Sages,

artificially fertilising (first

any interference of wind or insects) a variety of which the floral mechanism has reached a high state of perfection with the pollen of a very backward variety ; and vice versa. My observations are not yet sufiiciendy numerous to permit me to give any details or
against

conclusions here.
if a general

Nevertheless,

it

already appears as

law were being evolved, namely that the backward Sage readily adopts the improvements of the more advanced variety, whereas the latter is not so prone to accept the defects of the first. This would tend to throw an interesting side-light upon the operations, the habits, the preferences, the tastes of nature at her best. But these experiments cannot possibly be completed in so short a period, because of the time lost in collecting the different varieties, of the numberIt less proofs and counter-proofs required and so on. would be premature, therefore, as yet to draw the slightest conclusion firom them.

295

The Measure

of the Hours

xm
Be
this

as

it

may, the flower of most

Sage presents an attractive

varieties of the

solution of
fertilisation.

the great problem of cross-

But, even
is

as,

among men,

new
fied,

invention

at once taken up, simpli-

improved by a host of small indefatigseekers,

call
so,

able

in

the world of

what

we may

mechanical flowers, the patent

of the Sage has been elaborated and in

many

details strangely perfected.

A pretty

general Scrophularinea, the

common Lousein the

wort, or Red-rattle (Pedicularis sylvatica),

which you must surely have noticed

shady parts of small woods and heaths, has

introduced some extremely ingenious modifications.

The shape

of the corolla

is

almost similar to that of the Sage; the

stigma and the two anthers are
all

three
little

contained in the upper hood. Only the

296

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

pistil

moist tip of the

protrudes from the

hood, while the anthers remain captive.

this silky tabernacle, therefore, the

In

organs

of the two sexes are very close together and

even

in

immediate contact; nevertheless,

thanks to an enactment quite different from

that of the Sage, self-fertilisation
absolutely impossible.
Is

made

The

anthers, in fact,
;

form two sacks

juxtaposed
coincide

filled

with powder each of

the sacks has only one opening and they are

in

such a

way

that the openings

and mutually

close

each other.

They
teeth.

are forcibly kept inside the hood, on

their curved, springy stalks,

by a sort of

The

bee or humble-bee that enters

its

the flower to sip

nectar necessarily pushes

these teeth aside;

and the sacks are no

fly

sooner set free than they

outside
insect.

up, are flung

and

alight

upon the back of the

But the genius and foresight of the flower

go farther than

this.

As Hermann
397

Miiller,

The Measure
who was
the
first

of the Hours
a complete study

to

make

of the wonderful mechanism of the Lousewort, observes

(

am

quoting from a sum-

mary)

"If the stamens struck the insect while

preserving their relative positions, not a
grain of pollen would leave them, because
their orifices reciprocally close each other.

But a contrivance which

is

is

as simple as

it

ingenious overcomes the difficulty.

lip

The

lower

of the corolla, instead of being

is

symmetrical and horizontal,

irregular

and

slanting, so that

one side of

it is

higher

by a few millimetres than the other.

humble-bee resting upon
it

The The

must herself
one and

necessarily stand in a sloping position.

result
is

that her head strikes

first

then the other of the projections of the

corolla.

Therefore the releasing of the

stamens also takes place successively; and,

one after the other, their

298

orifices,

now

freed,

The
strike

Intelligence of the Flowers

the
insect

and sprinkle her with

fertilising dust.

"When
because
detail

the

humble-bee next passes to

fertilises
it,

another flower, she inevitably

and
is

have purposely omitted

first

this

^what she meets

of

all,

when

thrusting her head into the entrance to the

corolla,

the stigma, which grazes her just

at the spot
after, to

where she

is

about, the

moment

be struck by the stamens, the exact

spot where she has already been touched by

the stamens of the flower which she has last
left."

XIV
These instances might be multiplied
definitely;
inits
it

every flower has

its

idea,

system,

its

acquired experience which

turns to advantage.

When we

examine

closely their little inventions, their diverse

methods,

we

are reminded of those enthrall-

ing exhibitions of machine-tools, of ma299

The Measure of
chines for

the Hours
in

making machinery,

which the
its re-

mechanical genius of
sources.

man

reveals all

But our mechanical genius dates

floral

from yesterday, whereas

mechanism

has been at work for thousands of years.

When

the flowers
earth,

made

their appearance

upon our

there were

no models
;

around them which they could imitate they

had

to derive everything

from within them-

selves.

At

the period

when we had not

gone beyond the

in the

club, the

bow and

the

flail

comparatively recent days

when we

conceived the spinning-wheel, the pulley,

the tackle, the
last year, so to

ram;
speak

at the time

when our masterits

it

was

pieces

were the catapult, the clock and the

weaving-loom, the Sage had contrived the

uprights and counterweights of
precision

lever of

and the Lousewort

scientific
its

its

sacks closed

up

as

though for a

experiment, the
springs and the

successive releasing of

combination, of

its

inclined planes.
300

Who,

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

say a hundred years ago, dreamt of the

properties of the screw which the

Maple
to use

and the Lime-tree have been turning

since the birth of the trees ?

When shall we
and
as

succeed in building a parachute or a flying-

machine

as rigid, as light, as subtle

safe as that of the Dandelion ?

When shall

we

discover the secret of cutting in so frail

a fabric as the silk of the petals a spring as

powerful as that which projects into space

the golden pollen of the Spanish

Broom?
at the be-

As

for the Momordica, or Squirting CuI

cumber, whose name

ginning of

mentioned

this little study,

its

who

shall tell

us the mystery of

miraculous strength?
It is

Do

you know the Momordica?

Cucurbitacea,

humble

common

enough

along the Mediterranean coast.

fruit,

Its prickly
is

which resembles

a small cucumber,
vitality
it,

endowed with
energy.

inexplicable

and

You have
of
its

but to touch
it

at the

moment

maturity, and
301

suddenly

The Measure
quits
Its

of the Hours

peduncle by means of a convulsive

contraction and shoots through the hole

produced by the wrench,

mingled with
stream of
carries the

numerous

seeds, a mucilaginous
it

such wonderful intensity that

seed to four or five yards' distance from

the natal plant.

The

action

is

as extraordi-

nary, in proportion, as though

we were

to

succeed in emptying ourselves with a single

spasmodic movement and

all

in precipitating

our organs, our viscera and our blood to

a distance of half a mile

skeleton.

from our skin and

have

large

number of

seeds besides

ballistic

methods and employ sources of

less

energy that are more or

us.

unknown

to

Remember, for

instance, the explosions

of the Colza and the Heath.

the great masters
is

But one of
an Euphorfairly orna-

of vegetable artillery
is

the Spurge.

The Spurge

biacea of our climes, a tall

and

mental "weed," which often exceeds the

30a

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

I

height of a man.

have a branch of

Spurge on
in a glass

my

table at this
It

moment
trifid,

steeped

of water.

has

greenish

berries,

which contain the

seeds.

From

time to time, one of these berries bursts

with a loud report; and the seeds, gifted

with a prodigious
furniture
initial velocity, strike

the If

and the walls on every

hits

side.

one of them

your

face,

you

feel as
insect,

though you had been stung by an

so extraordinary
these
tiny
is

the penetrating force of

seeds,

each no larger than a

berry, look for
life:

pin's head.

Examine the
it

the

springs that give

you

shall
is

not find the secret of

this force,

which

as invisible as that of our nerves.

The

Spanish

Broom (Spartium

junceutn)
fitted

has not only pods, but flowers

springs.

with
the

You may have remarked

It
is

wonderful plant.
resentative

the proudest rep-

of

this

powerful
life,

family

of

the Brooms.

Greedy of
303

poor, sober,

The Measure of
robust, rejecting

the Hours
no
trial, it

no

soil,

forms

(along the paths

and

in the

mountains of sometimes

the South huge,

tufted balls,

three yards high, which, between

May

and

June, are covered with a magnificent bloom

of pure gold, whose perfumes, mingling

with those of

its

habitual neighbour, the

Honeysuckle, spread under the fury of a

fierce

sun

delights

that

are

not

to

be

described save by evoking celestial dews,

Elysian springs, cool streams and starry

transparencies in the hollow of azure grottoes.
.

The
all

flower of this

Broom,

like that

of

the papilionaceous Leguminosa, resem-

bles the flowers of the Peas of our gardens

and

its

lower petals, shaped like the beak

of a galley, contain hermetically the sta-

mens and the

the bee
trable.

pistil.

So long as
it

it is it

not ripe,

who
But,

explores

finds

impene-

as soon as

the

moment of

puberty arrives for the captive bride and

304

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

grooms, the beak bends under the weight

of the insect that rests upon
it;

and the

golden chamber bursts voluptuously, hurling with violence and afar, over the visitor,

over the flowers around, a cloud of lumi-

nous dust, which a broad petal, shaped

a penthouse, casts

like

down upon

the stigma to

be impregnated.

XV
Let us leave the seeds and return
flowers.
to the

As

have

said,
list

one could pro-

long indefinitely the

inventions.

of their ingenious

I refer those

who might wish

to study these problems thoroughly to the

works of Christian Konrad Sprengel, who

was the

first,

in

1793, in his curious volume.

der Natur im der Blutnen, to

Das entdeckte Geheimniss Ban und in der Befruchtung

in

analyse the functions of the different organs

the

Orchids;

next,
305

to

the

books of

The Measure
Charles Darwin, Dr.

of the Hours

Hermann

Miiller of

Lippstadt, Hildebrand, Delpino the Italian,

Sir

William Hooker, Robert Brown and

others.
shall find the

many

We

most perfect and the

most harmonious manifestations of vegetable intelligence

among

the Orchids.

In
the

these writhing

and

eccentric flowers,
its

genius of the

plant touches

extreme
pierces

point

and with an unusual

fire

the wall that separates the kingdoms.

that matter,
this

For

not be allowed to
believe that

name of Orchid must mislead us or make us

here to do only with

we have

rare and precious flowers, with. those hot-

house queens which seem to claim the care

of the goldsmith rather than the gardener.

Our

native wild flora, which comprises all

our modest "weeds," numbers more than

twepty-five species
just the
It
is

of Orchids,

including

most ingenious and complicated.

which Charles Darwin studied
3o6i

these

The
in his

Intelligence of the Flowers

book,

On

the Furious Contrivances

by which Orchids are fertilised by Insects,

which

is

the wonderful history of the most

It is

heroic efforts of the soul of the flower.

out of the question that I should here, in

a few lines, summarise that abundant and
fairylike biography. Nevertheless, since

we

are on the subject of the intelligence of

flowers,
it is

necessary that

we should

give

some idea of the methods and the mental

habits of that which excels all the others
in the

art of compelling the bee or the

butterfly to

do exactly what

it

wishes, in

the prescribed form and time.

XVI
It is not easy to explain

without diagrams

the extraordinarily complex mechanism of the Orchid. Nevertheless, I will try to give

a sufficient idea of
less

it

with the aid of more or

approximate comparisons, while avoid307

The Measure

of the Hours

ing as far as possible the use of technical

terms such as retinaculum, lahellum, rostel-

lum and the

rest,

which evoke no precise

image in the minds of persons unfamiliar

with botany.

Let us take one of the most widely

distributed

Orchids

in

our regions,

the

Orchis maculata, for instance, or rather,

because
it
is

little

larger and therefore

more
the

easily observed, the Orchis latifolia,

Marsh

Orchid, commonly
It
is

known

as the

Meadow-rocket.

a perennial plant

and grows
It
is

to a height of an inch or

more.

fairly

common
it

in

the

woods and
little

damp meadows and

June.

bears a thyrse of

pink flowers which blossom in

May

and

The

typical flower of our Orchids

represents pretty closely the fantastic

and

yawning mouth of a Chinese dragon.

lower
lip,

The

which
the

is

very long and which

hangs

in

form of a jagged or den308

tate apron, serves as a landing-place for the

The
insect.

Intelligence of the Flowers

The upper

lip

rounds into a sort of

hood, which shelters the essential organs;

while, at the back of the flower, beside the

peduncle, there falls a kind of spur or long,

pointed horn, which contains the nectar.

In most flowers, the stigma, or female organ,

is

more or

less viscid little tuft

which,
awaits

at the

end of a

frail stalk, patiently

the coming of the pollen. In the Orchid, this

traditional installation has
nisable.

become

irrecog-

At

the back of the mouth, in the

place occupied in the throat by the uvula,

are

two closely-welded stigmas, above which

stigma modified into an extraor-

rises a third

dinary organ.

At
Is

its

top,

it

carries a sort

of

little

pouch, or, more correctly, a sort

called the rostellum.

of stoup, which
stoup
is

This

full

of a viscid fluid in which soak

two

tiny balls at

whence

issue

two short

stalks

laden

their

upper extremity with a

packet of grains of pollen carefully tied up.

Let us now

see

what happens when an

309

The Measure of
insect enters the flower.

the Hours
She lands on the

lower

lip,

outspread to receive her, and,

nectar, seeks
it,

attracted

by the scent of the But the passage

insect's

to reach the horn that contains

right at

the back.

is

purposely

very narrow; and the

head, as she

advances, necessarily strikes the stoup.

latter, sensitive to

The

the least shock,

is

at once

ruptured along a convenient line and lays

bare the two
fluid.
little

balls steeped in the viscid

These, coming into immediate con-

tact

with the

visitor's

skull,

fasten to
it,

it

and become firmly stuck to

so that,

when
ries

the insect leaves the flower, she car-

them away and, with them, the two stalks which rise from them and which
end
In the

packets of tied-up pollen.

We
two

therefore have the insect capped with

straight, bottle-shaped horns.

The

unconvisits

scious artisan of a difficult

work now

a neighbouring flower.

If her horns re-

mained

stiff,

they would simply strike with

310

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

their pollen-masses the other pollen-masses

soaking in the vigilant stoup and

ijo

event

would spring from the pollen mingling with

pollen.

But here the genius, the experience

and the foresight of the Orchid become apparent.

The Orchid

has minutely calculated

the time needed for the insect to suck the nectar and repair to the next flower; and
it

has ascertained that

this

requires,

on an
that

average, thirty seconds.

We have seen

the packets of pollen are carried on

two

short stalks inserted into the viscid balls.

Now at the point of insertion there

each
stalk, a

is,

under

small
is,

membranous

disc,

whose

only function

at the

end of thirty seconds,

to contract and throw forward the stalks,

causing them

to

curve and

describe
is

an

arc of ninety degrees.

This

the result

of a fresh calculation, not of time, on the

occasion, but of space.

The two

horns of

pollen that cap the nuptial messenger are

now

horizontal and point in front of her

311

The Measure of
head, so that,

the Hours
enters the next

when she

flower, they will just strike the

two welded

stigmas under the pendent stoup.

This

is

not

all

and the genius of the

all its fore-

Orchid has not yet expended

sight.

The

stigma which receives the blow

is

of the packet

coated with a viscid sub-

stance. If this substance

were as powerfully were

fixed

adhesive as that contained in the stoup, the

pollen-masses,
after
their
it

stalks

broken, would stick to

to
it

and remain

whole; and their destiny would be

ended.

This must not be;

it

is

important

that the chances of the pollen should not

be exhausted

in a single venture,

but rather

that they should be multiplied to the greatest possible extent..

The

flower that counts

is

the seconds and measures the lines

chemist to boot and

distils

two

sorts of

gums one extremely

:

clinging,
air,

hardening as

soon as

it

touches the

to glue the pollen-

horns to the insect's head; the other greatly

312

The
latter
is

Intelligence of the Flowers

the

lenified, for

work of

the stigma.

This

just prehensile

enough

slightly to

unfasten or loosen the tenuous and elastic

threads with which the grains of pollen are

tied up.

Some of

these grains cling to

is

it,

but the poUinic mass

not destroyed

and,

when

the insect visits other flowers, she will

in-

continue her fertilising labours almost

definitely.

Have I expounded the whole No; I have still to call attention

a neglected detail:

miracle?
to

many

among

others, to the

movement of the little stoup, which, after its membrane has been ruptured to unmask
the viscid balls,
Jiower

immediately
order
to

lifts

up

its

rim

in

keep

in

good

condition, in the sticky fluid, the packet of

pollen which the insect

ried
off.

may

not have car-

We

should also note the very

divergence

curiously

combined

of

the

poUinic stalks on the head of the insect, as

well as certain chemical precautions com313

The Measure of
mon to
all

the Hours

plants

for the experiments

made

quite recently

by

M,

Gaston Bonnier seem

to prove that every flower, in order to pre-

serve

its

species intact, secretes poisons that

destroy

or

sterilise
all

any

foreign

pollen.

This

is

about

that

we

see; but here, as

in all things, the real, the great miracle be-

gins where our

power of

vision ends.

XVII
I

have

just this

moment

found,

in

an

untilled corner of the olive-yard, a splendid

sprig of Loroglossum hircinum, a variety

which, for I

know not what

It
is

reason (per-

haps

it

is

very rare in England), Darwin

certainly the

omitted to study.

most

remarkable, the most fantastic, the most

astounding of

all

our native Orchids.

If

it

were of the

size of the

American Orchids,
is

one could declare that there

fanciful

no more

plant

in

existence.
314

Imagine a

The
as tall.

Intelligence of the Flowers

thyrse, like that of the Hyacinth, but twice

It
is

symmetrically adorned with

of a

ill-favoured, three-cornered flowers,

greenish white stippled with pale violet.

The lower
and

petal, embellished at

its

source

with bronzed caruncles, huge mustachios

sinister-looking lilac buboes, stretches

out interminably, madly, unreally, in the

shape of a corkscrew riband of the colour

assumed by a drowned corpse after a

month's immersion
the
in

the river.

From
up
the

whole,

which

conjures

idea of the most fearsome maladies and

seems to blossom

in

some vague land of

and
witcheries,

ironical nightmares
issues a potent

there

and abominable stench as

of a poisoned goat, which spreads afar and

reveals the presence of the monster.
I

am
in
it-

pointing to and describing this nauseating

Orchid because
France,
is

it

is

fairly

common

easily recognised

and adapts
its

self very well,

by reason of
315

height and

The Measure
the distinctness of
its

of the Hours
organs, to any experi-

ments that one might wish to make.

We
of
it

have
a

only, in fact, to introduce the tip

into the

match

flower and to push

carefully to the
in order,

bottom of the nectary,

all

with the naked eye, to witness

the successive revolutions of the process of

fertilisation.

Grazed

in passing, the

pouch
little

or rostellum sinks down, exposing the

viscid disc

(the Loroglossum has only one)

that supports the

two

pollen-stalks.

As

soon as

this disc violently grips the

end of

the wood, the

pollen-balls

two

cells

that contain the

open longitudinally; and,

is

when
firmly

the match

withdrawn,
stiff,

its

tip

is

capped with two

ending
in

diverging

horns,

two golden

balls.

Unfortunately,

we do

not here, as

in the

experiment with

the Orchis latifolia,

spectacle offered

enjoy the charming

by the gradual and precise

inclination of the

two horns.

Why

are
in-

they not lowered?

We
316

have but to

The
bouring

Intelligence of the Flowers

troduce the capped match into a neighnectary

to

ascertain

that

this

movement would be
being

superfluous, the flower

much
in

larger than that of the Orchis

tnaculata or latifolia

and the nectar-horn

arranged

such a

way

that,

when

the

insect laden
it,

with the pollen-masses enters

they just reach the level of the stigma

to be fertilised.

Let us add that

it

is

important to the

success of the experiment to select a flower

that

is

quite ripe.
is

We

do not know when

the flower

ripe; but the insect

and the

flower itself know, for the flower does not

invite
its

necessary guests, by offering

them

a drop of nectar, until the

moment comes

when

all its

apparatus

is

ready to work.

XVIII
This
is

the basis of the system of

fertil-

isation adopted by the Orchid of our climes.

But each

species, every family modifies

317

and

The Measure of
improves the details
in

the Hours
its

accordance with

particular experience, psychology

venience.

and conone of

The

Orchis

or

Anacamptis
is

pyramidalis, for instance, which

the most intelligent, has
lip

added

to

its

lower

or labellum two

little

ridges which guide

the proboscis of the insect to the nectar and

compel her to accomplish exactly what

expected of her.

is

Darwin very

justly

comlittle

pares this ingenious accessory with the

instrument for guiding a thread into the

fine

eye of a needle.

Here

is

another
little

inter-

esting

improvement: the two

balls
in the

that carry the pollen-stalks

and soak
a
single
If,

stoup
disc,

are

replaced

by

viscid

shaped

like a saddle.

following

the road to be taken by the insect's proboscis,

we

insert the point

of a needle or a
plainly per-

bristle into the flower,

we very

ceive the advantages of this simpler

and

more

practical arrangement.

As
is

the bristle
in

touches the stoup, the latter

318

ruptured

The
formed

Intelligence of the Flowers

a symmetrical line
disc,

and uncovers the saddleat

which

once

becomes
the

attached to the
bristle

bristle.

Withdraw

smartly and you will just have time

to catch the pretty action of the saddle,

which, seated on the bristle or needle, curls

its

two

flaps inwards, so as to
it.

embrace the
of

object that supports

this

The purpose
all,

movement

is

to strengthen the adhesive

power of the saddle and, above

.sure

to enin

with greater precision than

the

Orchis latifolia the indispensable divergence

of the pollen-stalks.

As soon
it,

as the saddle

has curled round the bristle and as the

pollen-stalks planted in
its

drawn apart by

contraction, are forced to diverge, the

second movement of the stalks begins and

they bend towards the tip of the
the same
bristle, in

manner

as in the Orchid

which

we have

already studied.

The two movein thirty to

ments combined are performed

thirty-four seconds.
319

The Measure

of the Hours

XIX
Is
It

not exactly in this manner, by means

of

trifles,

of successive overhaulings and

retouches, that

human

inventions proceed?

We .have all,

in the latest

of our mechanical

industries, followed the tiny, but constant

improvements

in the sparking, the carbu-

ration, the clutch

and the speed-gear.

same way

It

would

really

seem as though ideas came

as to us.

to

the flowers in the

The
en-

flowers grope in the

same darkness,
same

counter the
in the

same

obstacles, the

ill-will,

same unknown. same

They have

the same

laws, the

disillusions, the

same slow

and

difiicult

triumphs.

They would appear

diversi-

to possess our patience, our perseverance,

our

self-love, the

same varied and

fied intelligence,

almost the same hopes and

the

same

ideals.

They

struggle, like our-

selves, against a great indifferent force that

ends by assisting them.

320

Their inventive

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

not
only
follows
the

imagination

same same
it

prudent and minute methods,

tiring,

the

narrow and winding

little

paths:

also has unexpected leaps

and bounds that

suddenly
ery.
It

fix definitely
is

an uncertain discovin-

thus that a family of, great

ventors
rich

among

the Orchids, a strange and

family, that of the Catase-

American

tida, thanks to a bold inspiration, abruptly

altered a

number of
it

habits that doubtless

First of
all,

appeared to

too primitive.
is

the separation of the sexes

absolute

each

has

its

particular flower.

Next, the pol-

liniutn,

or mass or packet of pollen, no

its

longer dips

stalk in a stoup full of

little

gum,
any

there awaiting, a
case,

inertly and, in

without
is

initiative,

the lucky accident

that

to

fix it

on the

insect's

head.

It

is

bent back on a powerful spring, in a sort

of

cell.

Nothing

attracts the insect specially

cell.

in the direction

of this

Nor have
like the

the

proud Catasetida reckoned,

321

com-

The Measure of
mon
if

the Hours

Orchid, on this or that

:

movement of
movement,

the visitor a guided and precise

you wish, but nevertheless a contingent

movement.
a flower
:

No, the

insect

no longer enters

endowed with an admirable mechliterally

anism she enters an animated and

sensitive flower.

Hardly has she pitched

feel-

upon the magnificent outer court of coppercoloured

ers,

silk

before long and nervous

which she cannot avoid touching, carry

Forthwith

the alarm all over the edifice. the cell

is

torn asunder in which the pollenis

mass,

divided into two packets,

its

held
is

captive on

bent-back pedicel, which

disc.

supported on a huge viscid

Abruptly

released, the pedicel straightens itself like

a spring, dragging with

it

the
disc,

two packets
which are

of pollen and the viscid

violently projected outside.

In consequence
the disc
is

of a curious

ballistic calculation,
first

always flung

and

strikes the insect, to

whom

It

adheres.

She,
322

stunned by the

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

blow, has but one thought: to leave the

aggressive corolla with
all

speed and take

refuge in a neighbouring flower.

that the

This

is all

American Orchid wanted.

XX
Shall I describe also the curious and practical simplifications

introduced into the genexotic

eral system

by another family of

Orchids, the Cypripedea?

to bear
in

Let us continue

mind

the

circumvolutions of

human

inventions:

we have

here an amusthe engine-

ing counter-proof.

fitter, in

room, a preparator, a pupil,

tory, says,

in

the labora-

one day, to his principal

just the opposite ?

"Suppose we tried to do

Suppose we reversed the movement, suppose

we inverted the mixture of the fluids?" The experiment is tried; and suddenly from the unknown issues the unexpected. One could easily believe the Cypripedea
323

The Measure
themselves.

of the Hours

to have held similar conversations

among

We all know the Cypripedium,

:

or Ladies'-slipper

with

its

enormous shoeair,

shaped
it

chin, its

crabbed and venomous

is

the most characteristic flower of our

hothouses, the one that seems to us the

typical Orchid, so to speak.

The
all

Cypri-

pedium has bravely suppressed

plicated

the com-

and

delicate

apparatus

of

the

springy pollen-masses, the diverging stalks,

the viscid discs, the cunning
rest.

gums and

the

Its clog-like chin

and a barren,

shield-

shaped anther bar the entrance in such a

manner
But

as to

compel the

insect to pass

its

proboscis over
this
is

two

little

heaps of pollen.

not the important point: the

>vholly unexpected
that, contrary to

and abnormal thing

is

what we have observed

it is

in all the other species,

no longer the
is

stigma, the female organ that

viscid,

but

the pollen

itself,

whose

grains, instead of

being pulverulent, are covered with a coat

324

The
drawn

Intelligence of the Flowers

it

so glutinous that

can be stretched and

into threads.

What
to be

are the advan-

tages and the drawbacks of this

new

ar-

rangement?

It

is

feared that the

pollen carried off by the insect

to

may adhere

any object other than the stigma; on the

is

other hand, the stigma

dispensed from

secreting the fluid destined to sterilise every

foreign pollen.

In any case, this problem

special study.

would demand a
ness

In the
useful-

same way, there are patents whose

we do

not grasp at once.

XXI
To
have done with
it

this strange tribe

of

the Orchids,

remains for us to say a few

sets the

words on an auxiliary organ that

whole mechanism going:
I

mean

the nec-

tary, which, for that matter,

has been the

object,
species,

on the part of the genius of the

of enquiries, attempts and experiintelligent

ments as

and
325

as varied as those

The Measure

of the Hours

which are incessantly modifying the econ-

omy of the essential organs. The nectary, as we have seen,

ciple, a sort

is,

in prin-

of spur, of long, pointed horn

right
at

that

opens

the bottom

of

the

flower, beside the peduncle,

and

acts

more
It

or less as a counterpoise to the corolla.

contains a sugary liquid, the nectar, which

serves as food for butterflies, beetles

and
into

other

insects

and which
bee.

is

turned

honey by the
is

Its business, therefore,

to attract the indispensable guests.

It

is

adapted to their
it is

size, their habits, their

tastes;

always arranged in such a

way

that

they cannot introduce or withdraw

their proboscis

without scrupulously and

all

successively

performing

the rights pre-

scribed

by the organic laws of the flower.

We
to

already

know enough
as

of the fantastic

character and imagination of the Orchids

foresee

that here,

elsewhere

and

even more than elsewhere, for the more

326

The
ily

Intelligence of the Flowers

itself to this

supple organ lends

more readobservant
itself

their

inventive,
spirit

practical,

and groping
scope.

has given

free

One

of them, for instance, the Sarin its

canthus teretifoUus, probably failing

endeavour to elaborate a viscid

fluid that

should harden quickly enough to stick the

bundle of pollen to the

insect's head,

has

overcome the

difficulty

by delaying the
in the

visitor's proboscis as

long as possible

narrow passages leading to the

labyrinth which
plicated
it

nectar.
is

The
com-

has laid out

so

that

Bauer,

Darwin's

skilful

draughtsman, had to admit himself beaten

and gave up the attempt to reproduce

it.

There are some which,

starting-

on the

excellent principle that every simplification

is

an improvement, have boldly suppressed

the nectar-horn.

They have

replaced

it

by

certain fleshy, fantastic

and evidently

suc-

culent excrescences which are nibbled by the

insects.

Is

it

necessary to
327

add that these

The Measure

of the Hours

excrescences are always placed in such a

manner that the guest who

must inevitably
in
set all the

feasts

on them

pollen-machinery

movement?

XXII
But, without lingering over a thousand

very various
fairy stories

little artifices, let

us end these

by studying the enticements

Truly,

of the Coryanthes macrantha.

we

no longer know with exactly what

being

sort of

we

here have to do.

this
:

The
its

astounding
lip

Orchid has contrived

lower

or

labellum forms a sort of bucket, into which

drops of almost pure water, secreted by two horns situated overhead,

fall continually;
full,

when
flows

this

bucket

is

half

the water
gutter.
re-

away on one

side

by a spout or
is

All this hydraulic installation

very

markable

in itself;

but here

is

where the

alarming, I might almost say the diabolical

side of the combination begins.
328

The

liquid

The
which

Intelligence of the Flowers

is

secreted

by the horns and which

is

accumulates in the satin basin

not nectar
attract the

and

is

in
it

no way intended to
has a

insects:

much more

delicate func-

tion in the really machiavellian plan of this

strange flower.

The

artless insects are in-

vited by the sugary perfumes diffused by

the fleshy excrescences of which I spoke

above to walk into the trap.

These

ex-

crescences are above the cup, in a sort of

chamber
access.

to

which two

lateral openings give

The

big visiting bee

the flower,

being enormous, allures hardly any but the

heaviest

Hymenoptera,

as

though

the

others experienced a certain

shame

at enter-

ing such vast and sumptuous halls

the big

bee begins to nibble the savoury caruncles.

If she were alone,
quietly,

she would go

away

after finishing her meal, without

even

grazing the bucket of water, the

stigma and the pollen; and none of that

which

is

required would take place.

329

But

The Measure
moves around
it.

o the Hours

the sapient Orchid observes the life that

It

knows that the bees

in

form an innumerable, greedy and busy

people, that they

come out by thousands

the sunny hours, that a perfume has but to

quiver like a kiss on the threshold of an

opening flower for them to hasten

in

crowd

to the banquet prepared

under the

nuptial tent.

We

therefore have two or

three looters in the sugary chamber: the

space
guests

is

scanty,

the

walls

slippery,

the

Ill-mannered.

They crowd and

good purpose
falling

hustle one another to such

that one of

them always ends by

She there

into the bucket that awaits her beneath the

treacherous repast.

finds

an unher

expected

bath,

conscientiously

wets

bright, diaphanous wings and, despite im-

mense
her

efforts,

cannot succeed in resuming

is

flight.

This

where the

astute flower

lies in

wait for her.

There
330

is

but one open-

ing through which she can leave the magic

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

bucket: the spout that acts as a waste-pipe

for the overflow of the reservoir.
just
It
is

wide enough to allow of the passage

first

of the insect, whose back touches

sticky surface of the stigma

the

and then the

that

viscid

glands

of

the

pollen-masses

await her along the vault. She thus escapes,

laden with the adhesive dust, and enters a

neighbouring flower, where the tragedy of

the banquet, the hustling, the
fall,

the bath

and the escape

is

reenacted and perforce

brings the imported pollen into contact with

the greedy stigma.

Here, then, we have a flower that knows

and plays upon the passions of

can
so
it

insects.

Nor

be pretended that
less

all these

are only

many more or
:

romantic interpreta-

tions

no, the facts have been precisely

and

scientifically

observed and

it

is

impossible

to explain the use

and arrangement of the

flower's different organs in any other way.

We

must accept the evidence as

331

it

stands.

The Measure
This incredible and

of the Hours
is

efficacious artifice
it

the

more

surprising inasmuch as

does not

here tend to satisfy the immediate

and

urgent need to eat that sharpens the dullest

wits
;

it

has only a distant ideal in view

the

propagation of the species.

But why, we
tastic

shall be asked, these fanin-

complications which end only by

creasing the dangers of chance?

Let us

not hasten to give judgment and reply.

We

know nothing of the reasons of plant. Do we know what obstacles

simplicity ?

the the

flower encounters in the direction of logic

and

Do we know
growth?

thoroughly a

single one of the organic laws of its existence

and

its

One watching
as

us

from the height of Mars or Venus,

might, in his turn, ask:
those
shapeless

we

exert ourselves to achieve the conquest of

the

air,

"Why

and monstrous
were so easy to

machines, those balloons, those air-ships,

those parachutes,

when
332

it

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

copy the birds and to supply the arms with

a pair of all-sufficing wings?"

XXIII

To

these

proofs of intelligence, man's

puerile vanity opposes the tra:

somewhat
but

ditional objection

yes,

they create marvels,

eternally

those

marvels remain
species,

the
its

same.

Each

each variety has

system and, from generation to generation,

introduces no perceptible improvement.
is

It

true that, since

we have been

observing

them

years

that
^we

is

to say, during the past fifty

have not seen the Coryanthes

macrantha or the Catasetida perfect their

trap
:

this

is all

that

really not enough.

we can say and it is Have we as much as

;

attempted
;

the

most

elementary

experi-

ments and do we know what the successive

generations

of

our
in

astonishing

bathing

Orchid might do
placed in

a century's time, if

different

surroundings,
333

among

The Measure of
insects to

the Hours

which

it

was not accustomed?

end by deceiv-

Besides, the

names which we give to the

and
varieties

orders, species
;

ing ourselves and

types which

we

thus create imaginary

we

believe to be fixed, whereas

they are probably only the representatives

of one and the same flower, which continues

to

modify

its

organs slowly in accordance

with slow circumstances.

The

flowers

came upon our earth before

the insects; they had, therefore,

latter appeared, to

when

the

adapt an entirely new

system of machinery to the habits of these

unexpected collaborators.

This geologi-

cally-incontestable fact alone,

amid

all

that

which we do not know,

lish

is

enough to
this
all,

estab-

evolution;

and does not

after

some-

what vague word mean,

would be

adapta-

tion, modification, intelligent

progress?

It

easy,

moreover, without ap-

pealing to this prehistoric event, to bring

together a large

number of
334

facts

which

The
and

Intelligence of the Flowers

faculty of adaptation
is

would show that the

intelligent progress

not reserved exrace.

clusively

for the

human

Without

returning to the detailed chapters which I

have devoted to

this subject in

the Bee, I will simply recall

topical details

The Life of two or three

which are there mentioned.

The

bees, for instance, invented the hive.

In the wild and primitive state and in

their country of origin, they

work

in the

open

air.

It

was the

uncertainty, the in-

clemency of our northern seasons that gave

them the idea of seeking

idea restored to the

a shelter in hollow

trees or a hole in the rocks.

This ingenious
looting

work of
combs
is

and

to

the care of the eggs the thousands of bees

stationed around the
to maintain the
es-

necessary heat.

It

not uncommon,

pecially in the South, during exceptionally

mild summers, to find them reverting to the

tropical
'

manners of
just written

their ancestors.^

had

these lines,

Bouvier

made

a communication in

when M. E. L. the Academy of

333

The Measure of
Another
tralia

the Hours
to Aus-

fact:

when transported

or California,

our black bee comAfter one or two

is

pletely alters her habits.

years, finding that

summer

perpetual and

flowers for ever abundant, she will live

from day

to day,

content to gather the

honey and pollen indispensable for the

day's

consumption; and, her recent and

observation

thoughtful
Science

triumphing

over

{cf. the report of the 7th of May, 1906) on the subject of two nidifications in the open air observed

Sophora Japonica, the other in a latter, which hung from a small branch furnished with two almost contiguous forks, was the more remarkable of the two, because of its evident and intelligent adaptation to particularly diffiin Paris, one in a
chestnut-tree.

The

cult circumstances.

in the science-column

de Parville, in his summary of the Journal des Ddbats of the 31st of May, 1906, "built consolidating pillars and resorted to really remarkable artifices of protection and ended by transforming the two forks of the chestbees," says

"The

M.

nut-tree into a solid ceiling. An ingenious human being would certainly not have done so well. "To protect themselves against the rain, they had
installed fences, thickenings

and blinds against the sun.

One
two

can have no idea of the perfection of the industry of the bees, except by observing the architecture of the
nidifications,

now

at the

Museum."

336

The
make
proves

Intelligence of the Flowers

experience,

hereditary

she

will

cease

to

provision for her winter.

fact,

Biichner
also

mentions an analogous
the
bees'

which
to

adaptation

circum-

stances, not slow, secular, unconscious

fatal,
:

and

but immediate and intelligent in Bar-

bados, the bees whose hives are in the midst

of the refineries, where they find sugar in

plenty during the whole year, will entirely

abandon

their visits to the flowers.

lastly recall the

Let us us
diction

amusing contra-

which the bees gave to two learned

English entomologists, Kirkby and Spence

"Show

us," said these, "a single case in

which, under stress of circumstances, the

bees have

had the idea of

substituting clay

or mortar for

wax and

propolis and
faculties."
this

we

will

admit their reasoning

Hardly had they expressed

arbitrary

somewhat
naturalist,

wish,

when another

Andrew

Knight, having coated the bark of

certain trees with a sort of cement

337

made of

The Measure
wax and

of the Hours

turpentine, observed that his bees

entirely ceased to gather propolis

and emin abun-

ployed only this new and unknown substance,

which they found prepared

dance in the neighbourhood of their home.

Moreover,

in
is

the practice of apiculture,

scarce, the bee-keeper has

when

pollen

but to place a few handfuls of flour at their

disposal for

them

at once to understand

that this can serve the

same purpose and be

turned to the same use as the dust of the

anthers, although
its taste,

smell

and colour
matter of

are absolutely different.

What

have

just said, in the

the bees, might, I think, mutatis mutandis,

be confirmed in the kingdom of the flowers,

I

have referred above to

in the

my humble

experiefforts

ments

wonderful evolutionary

of the numerous varieties of the Sage.

And

a curious study

by Babinet on the

cereals tells us that certain plants,

when
cli-

transported

far

from
33

their

habitual

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

mate, observe the

new

circumstances and

avail themselves of them, exactly as the

bees do.
Asia,

Thus,

in the hottest regions of

Africa

and

America,

where

the

winter does not

kill it
it

annually, our corn

becomes again what

first,

must have been

at

a perennial plant, like grass.

It re-

mains always green, multiplies by the root

and no longer bears

therefore,

ears or grains.

When,
tropical

from

its

original

and

country,

it

came
it

to be acclimatised in our
its

icy regions,

must have had to upset

habits

and invent a new method of multi-

plication.

As Babinet

well says:

"The organism of

the plant, thanks to

an inconceivable miracle, seemed to foresee

the need of passing through the grain state,
lest
it

should perish completely during the

severe season."

339

The Measure

of the Hours

XXIV
In any
case, to destroy the objection

which

we mentioned above and which

subject,
it

has caused

us to travel so far from our immediate

would be enough

to establish one

act of intelligent progress,

were

it

but for
But,

a single occasion, outside

mankind.

apart from the pleasure which one takes

in

refuting an over-vain and out-of-date

argument,
is

how

little

importance,

when

all

said, attaches to this question

of the per-

sonal intelligence of the flowers, the insects

or the birds

Suppose that we

say, speakit

ing of the Orchid and the bee alike, that

is

nature and not the plant or the insect that

calculates, that combines, that adorns, in-

vents and thinks

tinction

what

interest can this dis-

have for us?

A much loftier quesWhat

tion

and one much worthier of our eager

attention towers over these details.

we have

to

do

is

to grasp the character, the

340

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

quality, the habits

and perhaps the object

of the general intelligence whence emanate

all

the intelligent acts performed

It
is

upon

this

earth.

from

this point

of view that
ants

the study of those creatures

the bees,
the

among others in which, outside human form, the proceedings and the
most
clearly mani-

the

and

ideal of that genius are

fested becomes one of the most curious that

we can undertake. It is clear, after all that we have shown, that those tendencies, those
intellectual

methods must be

at least

as

complex, as advanced, as startling in the

Orchids as

in the gregarious

Hymenoptera.

Let us add that a large number of the

motives and a portion of the logic of these
restless insects, so difficult
still

of observation,
grasp with

escape us, whereas

we can

ease all the silent motives, all the wise

stable

and

arguments of the peaceful flower.

341

The Measure

of the Hours

XXV
Now
what do we observe, when we
perceive nature (or the general intelligence or

the universal genius

little) at

the

name matters but

work

in the

Orchid world?
it

Many

things; and, to mention

only in passing,

for the subject

would

offer facilities for a

long study,

we begin by

ascertaining that

her idea of beauty, of gladness, her methods of attraction, her

aesthetic tastes

are

very near akin to our own.

it

But no doubt

would be more correct

to state that ours

It
is,

are congenial with hers.

in fact, very

uncertain whether

we have ever invented a

All our archiall

beauty peculiar to ourselves.

tectural,
all

our musical motives,

our

harmonies of colour and light are borrowed

directly

from nature. Without

calling

upon

the sea, the mountains, the skies, the night,

the twilight,

what might one not

342

say, for in-

stance, of the beauty of the trees?

I speak

The
where

Intelligence of the Flowers

not only of the tree considered in the forest,

it is

one of the powers of the earth,

instincts,

perhaps the chief source of our

of
in

our sense of the universe, but of the tree

itself,
is

the solitary tree, whose green old age

laden with a thousand seasons.

Among

those impressions which, without our know-

ing

it,

form the limpid hollow and perhaps

which of us does not pre-

the subsoil of happiness and calm of our

whole

existence,

serve the recollection of a few fine trees?

When
period,

man

has passed mid-life,

when he
all

has come to the end of the wondering

when he has exhausted nigh

the
lux-

sights that the art, the genius

and the

ury of ages and

encing

men

can

offer, after experi-

and comparing many things he

returns to very simple memories.

raise

They

upon the

purified horizon

two or three

innocent, invariable

and refreshing images,

to carry
it

which he would wish

away with

him

in his last sleep, if

343

be true that an

The Measure
our two worlds.

of the Hours

image can pass the threshold that separates

For myself,
after-life,

can imagine
splen-

no paradise nor
did
cent
it

however

may be, in which a certain magnifiOak would be out of place, or a certain

Cypress, or a Parasol Pine of Florence or

of a charming hermitage near

house,

my own

any one of which affords to the

passer-by a

model of

all

the great move-

ments of necessary

resistance, of peaceful

courage, of soaring, of gravity, of silent

victory

and of perseverance.

XXVI
But
I

am wandering

too far afield: I

in-

tended only to remark, with reference to

the flower, that nature,

when

she wishes to

be beautiful, to please, to delight and to

prove herself happy, does almost what

should do had
posal.
I

we

we her treasures at our disknow that, speaking thus, I am

little like

speaking a

the bishop

who was

344

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

always

astonished that Providence

made

the great streams flow close to the big

cities;

but

it is

difficult to

look upon these

a

things

from any other than

Let
us, then,

human

point

of view.

from

this point

of

view, consider that

we should know

very
if

few signs or expressions of happiness

did not
to

we

know

the flower.
its

In order well

judge of

power of gladness and

live
in

beauty,

one must
it

a part of the

country where

reigns undivided, such as

the corner of Provence, between the Siagne

and the Loup,

lines.

in

which

am

writing these

Here,

truly, the flower is the sole

hills

sovereign of the

and

valleys.

The

peasants have lost the habit of cultivating

corn, as

though they had now only to proon sweet fragrance and

vide for the needs of a subtle race of

mankind that
ambrosia.
gay, which

lived

The
is

fields

form one great

nose-

incessantly renewed,

and the

perfumes that succeed one another seem to

345

The Measure of
dance their rounds
year.
all

the Hours

through the azure

Anemones,

Gilliflowers,

Mimosas,

Violets, Pinks, Narcissuses, Hyacinths, Jonquils,

Mignonette, Jasmine invade the days,

the nights, the winter, summer, spring and

autumn months.

But the magnificent hour

belongs to the Roses of

far as the eye can see,

May.

Then,

as

from the slope of

the hills to the hollow of the plains, be-

tween dikes of Vines and Olive-trees, they

flow on every side like a stream of petals

whence emerge the houses and the

youth, health and joy.

trees,

stream of the colour which we assign to

The aroma,
but

at once
all

warm

and

refreshing,

above

spacious, that opens

up the sky emanates,

one would think, directly from the sources

of beatitude.

The

roads, the paths are

carved in the pulp of the flower, in the very

substance of Eden.
one's
life,

For the

first

time in

one seems to have a satisfying

vision of happiness.
346

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

XXVII
Still

from our human point of view and

let

persevering in the necessary illusion,

us

add

to

our

first

remark one

little

more

extensive, a little less

hazardous and per-

haps big with consequences, namely, that

the genius of the earth, which
is

probably

that of the whole world, acts, in the vital

struggle, exactly as a

man would

act.

It

employs the same methods, the same

It attains its

logic.

aim by the same means that

:

we would
presses,
;as
it

use

it

gropes,

it

hesitates,
it

it it

cor-

rects itself time after time;

adds,
its

sup-

recognises

and repairs

errors,

we should do
it

in its place.

It

makes

great efforts,
little

invents with difficulty and

after

by

little,

the

manner of the
heavy,
It
it
is

workmen and

engineers in our workshops.

It fights like ourselves against the

huge and obscure mass of

its

being.

knows no more than we do whither

347

The Measure
going;
it

of the Hours
finds itself gradually.
is

seeks

and

It has an ideal that

often confused, but

one

in

which, nevertheless,

we

distinguish

a host of great lines that rise towards a

more

ardent, complex, nervous

and

spiritit

ual form of existence.

Materially,
it

dis-

poses of Infinite resources,

secret of prodigious

knows the
which we
it

forces of

know

nothing; but, intellectually,

appears
cannot
its

strictly to

occupy our sphere:

it

we

prove that, hitherto,

its;

has exceeded

lim-

and,

if it

does not endeavour to take

anything from beyond that sphere, does

this
it ?

not

mean
it

that there

is

nothing beyond

Does

not

mean

that the

methods of

the

ods, that

human mind are the only possible methman has not erred, that he is

neither an exception nor a monster, but the

being through

whom

pass,

in

whom

are
voli-

most intensely manifested the great

tions, the

great desires of the universe ?

348

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

XXVIII
The
emerge
Plato's
I

touchstones
slowly,

of

our

consciousness

grudgingly.
is

Perhaps
sufficient
it

famous

figure

no longer

mean

the cave with the wall above

whence the shadows of unknown men and

objects are
but, if

thrown

into the cave below;

we

tried to substitute a
its

new and
would be

more

exact image in

place, this

hardly more consoling.

cave enlarged.
enters
fire, it
it.

Suppose Plato's

No

ray of brightness ever

With

the exception of light and

all

has been carefully supplied with

;

that our civilisation permits

and men have

their
birth.

been imprisoned

in

it

from

They would not

never seen
their eyes
it;

regret the light, having

they would not be blind,

but,

would not be dead,

at,

having
be-

nothing to look

would probably
organ of touch.

come the most

sensitive

In order to recognise ourselves in their

349

The Measure of

the Hours

actions, let us picture these wretches in their

darkness, in the midst of the multitude

of

unknown

objects that surround them.

What
tions

quaint mistakes, what incredible de-

viations,

what astounding misinterpreta!

must needs occur

But how touching

and often how ingenious would seem the

use which they

would make of things that

in the

had not been created for employment

dark
I

How often would they guess aright ?

great would not be their stupesuddenly, by the light of day,
if,

And how
faction

they discovered the nature and the real object

of utensils and furniture which they had

as best they could to the

accommodated

uncertainties of the shade?

And
in

yet their position seems simple

and

easy compared with our own.

which they crawl

is

The mystery limited. They are

it is

deprived of only one sense, whereas

impossible to estimate the
in

number of those

which we are lacking. The cause of their

350

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

is

mistakes

one alone, whereas those of ours

are countless.
Since

we

live in a

cave of this

sort, is it

not interesting to prove that the power

which has placed us there

acts often

and on

some important points even

selves?
in

as

we

act our-

Here we have

a glimpse of light

our subterranean cave to show us that

not been mistaken as to the use of

we have

every object to be found therein.

XXIX

We have long taken a rather foolish pride

in thinking ourselves miraculous, unparall-

eled and marvellously incidental

beings,

probably fallen from another world, devoid

of any certain
in
ties

with the rest of

life

and,
in-

any

case,

endowed with an unusual,

It
is

comparable, monstrous faculty.

greatly
for

preferable to be less prodigious,

we

have learnt that prodigies do not take long

351

The Measure of
to disappear in the

the

Hours

normal evolution of
consoling to obas the

nature.

It is

much more
the

serve that

we follow

same road

soul of this great world, that

we have

the

same

ideas, the
it

same hopes, the same

not for our specific

trials

and

were

dream
It

of justice and pity

is

the

same

feelings.

much more

tranquilising to assure our-

selves that, to better our lot, to utilise the

forces, the occasions, the

laws of matter,

we employ methods
which
order
it

exactly similar to those

uses to conquer,

enlighten and

its

unsubjected,

unconscious

and
other

unruly regions,

that there are no

in the

methods, that we are

midst of truth

and that we are

in

our right place and at

home

in this universe

formed of unknown
is

substances,

whose thought, however,

not

impenetrable and hostile, but

analogous

and apposite to our own.

If nature

knew

everything,

if

she were
all

never mistaken,

if,

everywhere, in
352

her

The
first

Intelligence of the Flowers

undertakings, she showed herself, at the

onset, perfect, impeccable,
all

infallible,

if

she revealed in

things an intelligence

immeasurably superior to our own, then

there

would be cause to fear and

to lose

courage.

We should feel ourselves the vic-

tims and the prey of an extraneous power,

which we should have no hope of knowing

or measuring.
It
is

much

better to be con-

vinced that this power, at least from the

intellectual point of view,
is

closely akin to

our own.

Our

intelligence

draws upon the

same reserve

as does that of nature.

We
in-

belong to the same world,

equals.

we

are almost

We

are associating not with

accessible gods, but with veiled, yet fra-

ternal volitions

which

it is

our business to

surprise

and

to direct

XXX
It

would

not, I imagine, be very bold to

less

maintain that there are not any more or

3S3

The Measure
intelligence, a sort

of the Hours

intelligent beings, but a scattered, general

of universal fluid that

it

penetrates diversely the organisms which

encounters according as they are

good or

bad conductors of the understanding.

Man
this

would then
earth, the

represent, until now,

upon

mode of life

that offered the least

resistance to this fluid,

which the religions

called divine.

Our

nerves would be the

threads along which this more subtle electricity

would spread.

The

circumvolutions

of our brain would, in a manner, form the

induction-coil in

which the force of the

this cur-

current
rent

would be multiplied; but

would be of no other nature, would

proceed from no other source than that

which passes through the

the flower or the animal.

stone, the star,

But these are mysteries which

it

were

somewhat

idle to question, seeing that

we

do not yet possess the organ that could

gather their reply.

Let us be
354

satisfied

with

The

Intelligence of the Flowers

having observed certain manifestations of

this intelligence outside ourselves.

All that

we observe
to

within ourselves

is

rightly open

suspicion:

we

are at once judge and

Interest in
illu-

suitor

and we have too great an

and hopes.
But

peopling our world with magnificent

sions
let

the slightest ex-

ternal indication be dear

us.

and precious
have

to

Those which the

flowers

just

offered us are probably quite infinitesimal

compared with what the mountains, the

and the
stars

sea
sur-

would

tell us,

could

we

prise the secrets of their life. Nevertheless,

they allow us to presume with greater

confiall

dence that the

spirit

which animates

things or emanates from

them

Is

of the

same essence
bodies.

as that

which animates our

if

If this spirit resembles us,

it.

we
is

thus resemble

If all

that

it

contains
If
It

contained also within ourselves.

ploys our methods,
if It

em-

has our habits, our

preoccupations, our tendencies, our desires

3SS

The Measure
for better things,
is

of the Hours
it

illogical for us to
in-

hope

all

that

we do

hope, instinctively,
it is

vincibly, seeing that

it

almost certain that

probable,

hopes the same ?

Is

it

find scattered

through

life so

when we great a sum

should
to say,
is

total of intelligence, that this life

make no work of

intelligence, that

should not pursue an aim of happiness, of

perfection, of victory over that

which we
but
its

call evil, death, darkness, annihilation,

which
face or

is

probably only the shadow of

its

own

sleep ?

3S6

PERFUMES

PERFUMES

AFTER speaking
natural that
soul,

at

some length of the

it

intelligence of the flowers,

will

seem

we should
is

say a

word

of their

which

their perfume.

Unfortu-

nately, here, as in the case of the soul of

man,

perfume of another sphere, where

reason bathes,

we have

at once to

do with

the unknowable.

We

are almost entirely

unacquainted with the purpose of that zone

of festive and invisibly magnificent airwhich
the corollas shed
is,

around themselves. There

doubt whether
it

in fact, a great

serves
first

chiefly to attract the insects.

In the

place,

many among

the most sweet-scented

of the flowers do not admit of cross-fertilisation, so

that the visit of the butterfly or

359

The Measure
the bee
is

of the Hours
indifference
at-

to

them a matter of

or inconvenience.
tracts tlie insects
is

Next, that which

solely the pollen

and the

nectar, which,
tible

generally, have

no percep-

odour.

And

thus

we

see

them neglect

the most deliciously perfumed flowers, such

as the rose

and the

carnation, to besiege in

crowds the flowers of the maple or the

hazel-tree,

whose aroma

is,

in a

manner of
not yet

speaking, null.

Let

us, then, confess that

we do
tell

know

in

what

respect perfumes are useful to

the flower, even as

we cannot

why we
all

ourselves perceive them.

senses, that of smell is the
It
is

Indeed, of

our

most unexplained.
our animal

evident that sight, hearing, touch and

exist-

taste are indispensable to

ence.

long education alone teaches us

the disinterested enjoyment of forms, col-

ours and sounds.

sense

For that matter, our

exercises

of

smell

also

important

servile functions.

It is the

keeper of the

360

Perfumes
air

we

breathe, the hygienist or chemist that

watches carefully over the quality of the

food offered for our consumption, any

of suspicious or dangerous germs.
sides
this

dis-

agreeable emanation revealing the presence

But behas
an-

practical

mission

it

other which corresponds with nothing at

all.

Perfumes are

utterly useless to the

life.

needs of our physical

When

too vio-

lent or too lasting, they

may

even become

detrimental to

it.

Nevertheless,

we

possess

a faculty that revels in

them and brings us

as

the joyful tidings of

them with

much
it

en-

thusiasm and conviction as though

con-

cerned the discovery of a delicious fruit or

drink.

This uselessness deserves our conIt

sideration.

must hide some

fair secret.
in

We

have here the only occurrence

which

nature procures us a gratuitous pleasure, a

satisfaction that does not serve to

adorn one
is

of necessity's snares.

Our

scent

the only

purely luxurious sense that she has granted

361

The Measure
us.

of the Hours

Wherefore

it

seems almost foreign to

our bodies, appears to be not very closely

connected with our organism.
paratus that
is
;

Is

it

an apis.

developing, or one that

wasting away
ing faculty?
that
it

a somnolent, or an awaken-

Everything leads us to think

is

being evolved on even lines with'

our

civilisation.

The

ancients interested

themselves almost exclusively in the more

brutal, the heavier, the

more

solid scents, so

to speak: musk, benzoin, incense;

and the

fragrance of the flowers

Is

very seldom
in

mentioned

in

Greek and Latin poetry or

To-day, do

Hebrew

literature.

we

ever see

our peasants, even at their longest periods

of leisure, dream of smelling a violet or a
rose?

And
cities

is

not

this,

on the other hand,

the very

first

act of an inhabitant of our

great
is,

who

perceives a flower?

There

therefore,

some ground for admitting

is

that the sense of smell

the last-born of
is

our senses, the only one, perhaps, that

36a

Perfumes
not "in course of retrogression," to use the

ponderous phrase of the

is

biologists.

This

a reason for
it

making

it

our study, quesits

tioning

and

cultivating

possibilities.
it

Who shall tell the surprises which

have
in

would
for
it

store

for us

if

it

equalled,

instance, the perfection of

our sight, as

does in the case of the dog, which lives as

much by

the nose as by the eyes ?

We

have

here

an

unexplored

world.

This mysterious sense, which, at

first sight,

appears almost foreign to our organism,

becomes,
perhaps,

when more
not,

carefully
it

considered, that which enters into

intimately.

most

Are we

above

all things,

beings of the air?

Is the air

not for us the

most absolutely and promptly indispensable

element; and
is

not our smell just the one

sense that perceives

some parts of

it?

Perlife-

fumes, which are the jewels of that

giving
cause.
air,

do not adorn

it

without good
if this

It

were not surprising

363

luxury

The Measure

of the Hours

which we do not understand corresponded

with something very profound and very
essential

and

rather, as
is

we have

seen,

with

something that

not yet than with someIt

is

thing that has ceased to be.

very
is

possible that this sense, the only one that

turned

towards

the

future,

is

already

discerning the most striking manifestations

of a form or of a happy and salutary state

of matter that
for us.
is

reserving

many

surprises

Meanwhile,

it

has not yet reached beyond

the stage of the

perceptions.
suspect,

more

violent, the less subtle

it

Hardly does

so

much

as

with the aid of the imagination,

the profound and harmonious effluvia that

evidently envelop the great spectacles of the

atmosphere and the

light.

As we

are on

the point of distinguishing those of the rain

and the

twilight,

why should we not one day

first

succeed in recognising and fixing the scent

of snow, of

ice,

of morning dew, of the

364

Perfumes
fruits

of the dawn, of the twinkling of the

for everything must have
as
yet,
in
its

stars

perfume,
even
a

inconceivable,

space:

moonbeam,

a ripple of water, a hovering

.

cloud, an azure smile of the sky.

II

Chance or rather the choice of

brought
almost

life

has

me back

lately to the spot

where

all

the perfumes of
It
is,

Europe are born

of fact, as

and elaborated.

in point

every one knows,

in

the sun-swept and

to

balmy region stretching from Cannes

Nice that the
last hills

and the

last valleys

of living and true flowers maintain an

heroic struggle against the coarse chemical

odours of Germany, which stand

the

in exactly

same

relation to nature's perfumes as

do the painted woods and

to the

plains of a theatre

woods and

plains of the real country.

Here

the labourer's

work

is

ruled by a

36s

The Measure
May
these

of the Hours

sort of purely floral calendar, in which, in

and

July,

two adorable queens hold

sway: the rose and the jasmine.

Around
one the

two sovereigns of the

year,

colour of the dawn, the other clad in white

stars, defile in procession,

from January to
innumerous

December,
prompt, the

the

violets,

and

artless,

marvel-eyed narcissuses,

the clustering mimosas, the mignonette, the

pink laden with precious

spices,

the im-

perious geranium, the tyrannically virginal

orange-flower, the lavender,
the Spanish

broom, the too-potent tuberose and the

acacia that resembles an orange caterpillar.
It
is,

at

first,

not a

little

disconcerting to
rustics,

see the great dull

and heavy

whom
seri-

harsh necessity turns every elsewhere from

the smiles of
life,

taking flowers so

ously, handling carefully those fragile orna-

ments of the earth, performing a task

fit

for a princess or a bee and bending under

a weight of violets or jonquils.
366

But the

Perfumes
most striking impression
is

that of certain

evenings or mornings in the season of the

roses or the jasmine.
It
is

as

though the

atmosphere

of

the

earth
it

had suddenly

changed, as though

had made way for

vague
full,

that of an infinitely happy planet, where

perfumes are not, as here,

fleeting,

and precarious, but

stable, spacious,

permanent, generous, normal and inalienable.

Ill

Many

writers, speaking of Grassc,

have

drawn the

picture of that almost fairy-like

industry which occupies the whole of a

hard-working town, perched,

hive,

like a sunlit

upon a mountain-side.

They have

told of the magnificent cartloads of roses

shot upon the threshold of the smoking factories, the

great halls in which the sorters

the flood of petals,

literally

wade through
367

the less cumbersome, but

more

precious

The Measure of

the Hours

arrival of the violets, tuberoses, acacias, jas-

mine, in wide baskets which the peasant-

women

carry nobly on their heads.

Lastly,

they have described the different processes

whereby the

flowers, each according to

its

character, are forced to yield to the crystal

the marvellous secrets of their hearts.

We

know

that

some of them, the

roses, for in-

stance, are

accommodating and willing and

give up their

aroma with
huge

simplicity.

They

are heaped into

boilers, tall as those

of our locomotive engines, through which

steam

is

made

to pass. Little

by

little,

their

essential oil,
pearls, oozes

more

costly than a jelly of

drop by drop into a glass tube,

at the

no wider than a goose-quill

of the monstrous
still,

bottom

which resembles
to a

some mountain painfully giving birth

tear of amber.

But the greater part of the flowers do not

so easily allow their souls to be imprisoned.
1 will not, in the

wake of
368

so

many

others,

Perfumes
speak here of the
inflicted
infinitely

varied tortures

upon them

to force

them

at length

to surrender the treasure

which they despe-

rately hide in the depth of their corollas.

I will

not enumerate the different processes

of chemical extraction by means of petrol

ether, sulphide of carbon

and the

rest.

The

great perfumers of Grasse, ever faithful

to tradition, scorn these artificial

and almost
the soul of

unfair methods, which

the flower.

wound

It will suffice to give

an idea

of the executioner's cunning and the obstinacy of

some of the

victims, to recall the

pangs of the enfleurage which certain flowers are

silence.

made The

to endure before they break

cold enfleurage

is

practised

only upon the jonquil, the mignonette, the

tuberose and the jasmine;^ and I
'

may menfat

The
is

violets resist the reduction

torture of fire has to

fore,

of cold be superadded. The

and the

lard, there-

it approaches In consequence of this barbarous treatment, which recalls that inflicted upon the coiners of

heated in the water-bath until

boiling-point.

369

The Measure
mine
is

of the Hours
of the jas-

tion, in passing, that the scent

the only one that

is

inimitable, the

only one that cannot be obtained by

cunning mixture of other odours.

The
fingers

torturer coats large plates of glass with a white fat of the thickness of

two

and spreads on

this

bed of humiliating pain

the flowers to be questioned.

sult

As

the re-

of what hypocritical manoeuvres, of

fat obtain

what unctuous promises does the

their irrevocable confidences?
tell
;

None

can

but the fact remains that soon the too-

trusting flowers have nothing

more

to lose.

Forthwith,

they are removed and flung

;

away

as rubbish

and, each morning, a

new
in-

ingenuous heap takes their place on the

sidious couch.

These yield
and

in their turn

the middle ages, the modest

fragrant flowers that

deck the roads in spring gradually lose the strength to keep their secret. They yield, they surrender, and
liquid executioner absorbed four times its
their

satiated imtil it has weight in petals, which causes the torture to be prolonged throughout the season in which the violets blossom under the olive-trees.
is

not

own

370

Perfumes
and undergo the same
others follow
;

fate

others and yet

them and

it is

not until the

end of three months, that

is

after devouring

ninety successive layers of flowers, that the

unctuous ogre

is

completely surfeited and

refuses to absorb the life

and soul of any

a matter
;

further victims.

It

now becomes
miser disgorge

of making the
energy,

wan

for the

to retain the

absorbed treasure.
difficulty.
its

This

is

achieved,

not without

The

fat has base passions

'

which are
is

un-

doing.

It

is

plied with alcohol,

its

intoxi-

cated and ends by quitting

alcohol

hold.

The

now
it

possesses the mystery.

No

sooner has
it

the secrets in

its

custody than

too claims the right to impart them to

itself alone.

none other, to keep them for

is

It

attacked in

its

turn, tortured, evaporated,

all

condensed; and, after

these adventures,

the liquid pearl, pure, essential, inexhaustible

and almost imperishable,

a crystal blade.
371

is

at last gath-

ered on