Note 1 — Chapter xx · THE MODERN THEORY OF INSTINCT

Let us place side by side with the murderous art of the Wasp the murderous art of man, practical man, whose business it is to slay rapidly. I will here recall one of my childhood’s memories. We were schoolboys of twelve years old, or thereabouts. We were being instructed in the woes of Melibœus, pouring out his sorrows on the bosom of Tityrus, who offers him his chestnuts, his sour milk and his bed of fresh bracken;1 we were made to recite a poem by Racine the Younger,2 La Religion. A curious poem, forsooth, for children who cared more for marbles than theology! I remember just two lines and a half: