thunderclaps, the violence of the wind! You might have thought the
whole world was going to ruin. And then, after a little, came this
wonderful serenity of weather, which has continued till to-day.
Which do you think the greater and more difficult thing to do: to
exchange the disorder of that irresistible whirlwind to a clarity
like this, and becalm the whole world again, or to refashion the form
of a woman into that of a bird? We can teach even little children to
do something of that sort,--to take wax or clay, and mould out of the
same material many kinds of form, one after another, without
difficulty. And it may be that to the Deity, whose power is too vast
for comparison with ours, all processes of that kind are manageable
and easy. How much wider is the whole circle of heaven than
thyself?--Wider than thou canst express.

"Among ourselves also, how vast the difference we may observe in
men's degrees of power! To you and me, and many another like us,
many things are impossible which are quite easy to others. For those
who are unmusical, to play on the flute; to read or write, for those
who have not yet learned; is no easier than to make birds of women,
or women of birds. From the dumb and lifeless egg Nature moulds her
swarms of winged creatures, aided, as some will have it, by a divine
and secret [84] art in the wide air around us. She takes from the
honeycomb a little memberless live thing; she brings it wings and
feet, brightens and beautifies it with quaint variety of colour:--and
Lo! the bee in her wisdom, making honey worthy of the gods.

"It follows, that we mortals, being altogether of little account,
able wholly to discern no great matter, sometimes not even a little
one, for the most part at a loss regarding what happens even with
ourselves, may hardly speak with security as to what may be the