what you tell me (says i) is very extraordinary. but i cannot see why the elementary spirits raise and cultivate this plant with so great care. they who wish us so much good, in this respect do us very little. to behold men, stung to the quick, acting like madmen, losing their senses for chimeras, is a thing, in my opinion, deserving pity; but perhaps it may be an amusement to the elementary spirits.
like many others (replied the prefect) thou judgest and seest things but in one view. the itches have their inconveniences; but that is nothing in comparison 250of their advantages. without the itch of talking and writing, would eloquence be known? would the sciences have been transmitted and improved from generation to generation? would not you be like so many untaught children, without ideas, without knowledge, without principles? was it not for the itch of being known, who would take the pains to amuse you, to instruct you, to be useful to you by the most interesting discoveries? without the itch of ruling, who would busy themselves in unravelling the chaos of the laws, in hearing and judging your quarrels, in watching for your safety? without the itch of shining, in what kingdom would policy find a vent for those respectable knick-knacks wherewith she adorns those she is pleased to 251distinguish? and yet, this kind of nothings are, for the good of the state, to be acquired at the price even of blood. thanks to our flies, there are some mad enough to sacrifice all for their sake, and others fools enough to behold them with veneration.
take away our insects, and men stand stupidly ranged by one another, like so many statues; let our insects fly, and these statues receive new life, and are as busy as bees. one sings, another dances, this reads his verses and falls into an extasy, that hears him and is tired: the chymist is at his furnace, the speculatist in his study, the merchant at sea, the astronomer discovers a new satellite, the physician a new medicine, the soldier a new man?uvre; 252in fine, the statues are men; and all this is owing to this plant and our care.
i beg (said i to the prefect) we may stand at a distance from this admirable plant; i dread more than i can express, the neighbourhood of these volatiles. i rejoice much to see them authors of so many benefits; but i fear still more, the uneasiness they create.