lautremont--maldoror

''flocks of starlings have a way of flying natural to them, which seems to be governed by a uniform and regular tactic like that of a disciplined army obeying with precision the voice of a single general. the starlings obey the voice of instinct, and this prompts them always to draw in toward the center of the group, while the rapidity of their flight carries them unceasinly beyond that point;

''so that this multitude of birds, thus united by a common tendancy toward the same hypnotic point, coming and going unceasingly, circulating and recrossing in every direction, forms a sort of agitated whirlpool,

''the entire mass of which, with out following particular direction, seems to have a general movement of evolution upon itself resulting from the particular circulatory motions of each of its members, and in which the center, perpetually tending to increase, but continually held in, is repulsed by the contrary strains of the environing lines that bear upon it,

''and constantly more compressed than any one of these lines, which are themselves compressed the more as they approach closer to the center despite this singular manner of eddying, the starlings do not cleave through the air with any less rare a swiftness, and gain noticeably each second a precious step toward the end of their fatigue and the goal of their pilgrimage.''

lautremont, maldoror--in a new translation by guy wernham.