The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-12-07
DIR. GRIGGS ON
THE BLUEBIRD
Speaker on Maeterlinck
Gives Interpretation of
Nature Studies.
''THE LIFE OF THE BEE"

All the simple, natural charm of
"The Blue Bird" and the
broad philosophy of his "Life of the
Bee," were portrayed in DR.. E. H.
Griggs' Interpretation of Maeterlinck's
nature studies last evening at the
Elks' club. The lecture, which is the
third of series of five on Maeter-
linck, was of equal excellence with the
previous addresses. "There is moth
ing esoteric or remote about Maeter-
linck's nature studies" said Dr. Griggs,
"but he is always cropping toward the
great mystery, which is the true re-
lation of the external mind of nature
to the internal mind of man."
Beautiful Background.
DR.. Griggs told something of the
background of nature, upon which
Maeterlinck staged his life work. Both
before and after his spiritual awak-
ening at the age of thirty-fve, he. car
ried the love of natural things into
his work. Even his beautiful Flemish
home. encouraged the searching into
nature, and the poet carried all of
his nature studies over into his mys-
tic work, where he portrayed natures
influence upon human life.
His "Life of the Bee," is not a sci
entific treatise, but loving interpre-
tation of the life of hymenoptera.
Bees are the most complex beings in
existence, and their minds are the best
developed next to man, according to
the most recent scientific research
Beside this, the bee gives the lesson
Of continual labor interpolated with
well spent leisure. A serene beauty,
and an emotional interest in the life
of the bees, characterize Maeterlinck's
most popular prose volume. In it he
shows that hive of bees is the most
pitiless republic known, in which the
individual is subordinated to the COM
munity. "Is that human destiny 2"
aswed DR.. Griggs, COR does man pos
sess power of withstanding certain of
natures laws ?" Maeterlinck says "In
proportion to the organization of So
ciety and its rising in the scale is the
shrinkage of the individually; it is the
eternal struggle between the morality
of brute strength, and the morality of
the human spirit" And after all what
is Intelligence, and do humans pos
sess the great monopoly Of it they claim
to have? DR.. Griggs gave an inter-
esting account of some of Maeter-
linck's experiments with his bees
which creates this question.
Other Nature Studies.
"In his Intelligence of the Flowers"
said DR.. Griggs, @Maeterlinck accom-
plishes almost as great "a thing as
in The Life of the Bee' The life Of
the flowers is more complicated be-
cause they are rooted. Fertilization
is made possible only through the bees.
Maeterlinck's Double Garden is full
of the charm of perfume. His essay
on the little dog is one of his most
sympathetic nature studies.
"In 1909 Maeterlinck published his
Blue Bird which is not directly a
study of nature, but is founded on the
love of natural reality. The entire
play is suggestive of searchings into
the mystic universe. In it the poet
puts his first humor. 1t is a remark
able fairy tale for children because
it separates good from evil so dis
tinctly, and it provides exuisite in
struction, as we'll as delicate sort of
philosophy for adults"