-Translator's Note.) Why, he enquired, have Ducks a little curly feather on
the rump? No one, so far as I know, had an answer for the teasing cross-
examiner: evolution had not been invented then. In our time the reason why
would be forthcoming in a moment, as lucid and as well-founded as the
reason why of the tiger's coat.

Enough of childish nonsense. The Cetonia-grub walks on its back because it
has always done so. The environment does not make the animal; it is the
animal that is made for the environment. To this simple philosophy, which
is quite antiquated nowadays, I will add another, which Socrates expressed
in these words:

"What I know best is that I know nothing."


CHAPTER 6. THE TACHYTES.

The family of Wasps whose name I inscribe at the head of this chapter has
not hitherto, so far as I know, made much noise in the world. Its annals
are limited to methodical classifications, which make very poor reading.
The happy nations, men say, are those which have no history. I accept this,
but I also admit that it is possible to have a history without ceasing to
be happy. In the conviction that I shall not disturb its prosperity, I will
try to substitute the living, moving insect for the insect impaled in a
cork-bottomed box.

It has been adorned with a learned name, derived from the Greek Tachytes,
meaning rapidity, suddenness, speed. The creature's godfather, as we see,
had a smattering of Greek; its denomination is none the less unfortunate:
intended to instruct us by means of a characteristic feature, the name