Do you think it really the larva of meloe?

--Oh, I don't know much about that, but I think he is the best cared for,
on the whole, of any animal that I know of; and if I wasn't a man I
believe I had rather be that little sybarite than anything that feasts at
the board of nature.

--The question is, whether he is the larva of meloe,--the Scarabee said,
as if he had not heard a word of what I had just been saying.----If I
live a few years longer it shall be settled, sir; and if my epitaph can
say honestly that I settled it, I shall be willing to trust my posthumous
fame to that achievement.

I said good morning to the specialist, and went off feeling not only
kindly, but respectfully towards him. He is an enthusiast, at any rate,
as "earnest" a man as any philanthropic reformer who, having passed his
life in worrying people out of their misdoings into good behavior, comes
at last to a state in which he is never contented except when he is
making somebody uncomfortable. He does certainly know one thing well,
very likely better than anybody in the world.

I find myself somewhat singularly placed at our table between a minute
philosopher who has concentrated all his faculties on a single subject,
and my friend who finds the present universe too restricted for his
intelligence. I would not give much to hear what the Scarabee says about
the old Master, for he does not pretend to form a judgment of anything
but beetles, but I should like to hear what the Master has to say about
the Scarabee. I waited after breakfast until he had gone, and then asked
the Master what he could make of our dried-up friend.