"Beautiful insect," said I then, "I have heard that, as a reward for thy ceaseless praying, God hath given thee the gift of divination.
"And that if some child, lost amid the harvest fields, asks of thee his way, thou, little creature, showest him the way through the wheat.
"In the pleasures and pains of this world, I see that I, poor child, am astray; for, as he grows, man feels his wickedness.
"In the grain and in the chaff, in fear and in pride, in budding hope, alas for me, I see my ruin.
"I love space, and I am in chains; among thorns I walk barefoot; Love is God, and Love sins; every enthusiasm after action is disappointed.
"What we accomplished is wiped out; brute instinct is satisfied, and the ideal is not reached; we must be born amid tears, and be stung among the flowers.
"Evil is hideous, and it smiles upon me; the flesh is fair, and it rots; the water is bitter, and I would drink; I am languishing, I want to die and yet to live.
"I am falling faint and weary; O prègo-diéu, cause some slight hope of something true to shine upon me; show me the way."
And straightway I saw that the insect stretched forth its slender arm toward Heaven; mysterious, mute, earnest, it was praying.