k-QL 
 
 467 
 
 W3 
 
 1828 
 
 MAIN 
 
 ' ! 
 
 ,y - - V 
 
'( r 
 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
THE 
 
 INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 ADDRESSED TO ENTOMOLOGISTS, 
 WITH 
 
 OTHER POEMS, 
 BY SUSANNA WATTS. 
 
 V 
 
 " In senate met; 
 
 " All head to counsel, and all heart to act 
 " The common weal inspiring ev'ry tongue 
 41 With fervent eloquence, unbrib'd and bold." 
 
 THOMSON'S LIBERTY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 HURST, CHANCE, & CO., ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD, 
 
 AND 
 
 A. COCKSHAAV , LEICESTER. 
 
 1828. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE following little Fable is not pre- 
 sented to "the Public as a mere bagatelle 
 of amusement suggested by the fashion- 
 able popularity of Entomology, but under 
 a serious, anxious, and most sincere desire 
 to inculcate respect and tenderness towards 
 all the inferior creatures. Men, in theory, 
 (if not in practice,) have fully explained 
 and established a beautiful and perfect sys- 
 tem of their social duties towards each 
 other ; but they have never thought of 
 admitting into their code as a principle, 
 their own duty towards the animals. 
 Here the relation is not acknowledged of 
 master and servant ; it is owner and 
 slave ; absolute power and absolute sub- 
 jection. That great pattern of legal up- 
 rightness and Christian excellence, Sir Mat- 
 thew Hale, in his striking tract, called 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 " The Great Audit," represents the Su- 
 preme Judge as demanding, among the 
 particular charges for which he calls his 
 servants to judgment, an account of their 
 conduct towards the creatures over which 
 he gave them dominion. The Jaithful 
 steward replies. " I have ever thought 
 that there was a certain degree of justice 
 due from man to the creatures as from 
 man to man ; and that an excessive, im- 
 moderate, unseasonable use of the crea- 
 tures' labor is an injustice for which he 
 must account, therefore I have always 
 esteemed it a part of my duty, and it hath 
 always been my practice to be merciful to 
 beasts ; and upon the same account I 
 have ever esteemed it a breach of trust, 
 and have accordingly declined any cruelty 
 to any of thy creatures, as a tyranny 
 inconsistent with the trust and steward- 
 ship that thou hast committed to me. I 
 have abhorred those sports which consist 
 in the torturing of the creatures. And I 
 have still thought it an unlawful thing to 
 destroy those creatures for recreation's 
 
PREFACE. V 
 
 sake, that either were not hurtful when 
 they lived, nor profitable when they are 
 killed ; ever remembering that thou hast 
 given us a dominion over thy creatures ; 
 yet it is under a law of justice, prudence, 
 and moderation, otherwise we should be- 
 come tyrants^ not lords over thy creatures ; 
 and therefore, those things that others have 
 practised as recreations^ I have avoided 
 
 as sins" 
 
 If then, such is the rational and obli- 
 gatory relation between man and the 
 larger animals, ought not the same feelings 
 to be exercised towards insects. These 
 beautiful and highly-endowed creatures, 
 owing to their minuteness, are overlooked 
 and considered as proverbially insignifi- 
 cant, yet they are a world in themselves, 
 a microcosm of miracles,, exhibiting in 
 their structure, habits, and instincts, as 
 equally astonishing proofs of omnipotence, 
 contrivance and goodness, as those animal 
 tribes whose powers and endowments are 
 broad and visible to every eye. The 
 adaptation of the camel to his sandy 
 
 A 3 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 desert, and of the rein-deer to his snowy 
 regions, is not more wonderful than that 
 of the spider and the fly to their destined 
 office and habitation. 
 
 As insects are peculiarly attractive to 
 children, either as objects of delight, or as 
 playthings to be sported with, hurt, or 
 killed, it is no small duty of education to 
 inculcate tenderness towards them. If I 
 mistake not, Hogarth, in his admirable 
 Progress of Cruelty, traces its stages from 
 the boy who tortured flies, to the mur- 
 derer whose heart he represents as gnawn 
 by a dog in the dissecting room of the 
 surgeon. 
 
 If a child be properly impressed with 
 some knowledge of the w r onderful struc- 
 ture and ingenious labours of insects, he 
 will not venture to destroy one of these 
 specimens of divine art. The beautifully 
 illustrative precept of the amiable and 
 pious Jeremy Taylor ought to be en- 
 graven, not only on the hearts of chil- 
 dren, but on those of every human be- 
 ing. " GOD is in every creature: be 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 cruel towards none. Remember that 
 every creature is one of the lesser cabinets 
 and receptacles of GOD." 
 
 The author would rejoice, with every 
 friend to humanity, to see the cause of the 
 animals advocated by some first-rate poet, 
 some magnanimous senator, or some able 
 preacher. 'The subject is worthy of talents 
 the most exalted ; and that man of genius 
 would deserve the thanks of his country, 
 who should iree her from the reproach 
 and pollution of a vice so degrading, un- 
 manly, and anti-christian, as cruelty to- 
 wards animals. 
 
 The present fashionable mode of 
 making collections of insects, it is to be 
 feared, may blunt that delicate sense of 
 humanity which shrinks at taking away 
 life. The feeling and good sense of the 
 humane will therefore view with candor 
 any attempt, however small, to cherish 
 sentiments which are undoubtedly con- 
 nected with the Christian law of universal 
 kindness ; for that mind which is accus- 
 tomed to contemplate with delight the 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 happy frolics of a butterfly, will be in a 
 temper to sympathise in the pleasures and 
 pains of his fellow-creatures. . In every 
 point of view, humanity towards every 
 thing that is blest with existence, is of 
 high importance. As an attribute of 
 moral taste, it points, refines, and polishes 
 the sensibilities of the mind, and renders 
 it more alive to the influence of all that is 
 beautiful and attractive in creation or art. 
 As a serious consideration in political 
 economy, it bears an importance of inex- 
 pressible weight ; for if the morals of a 
 nation be indispensibly connected with its 
 weal or its woe, the prevalence of humanity 
 in the general mind must tend to prevent 
 those diabolical acts of outrage and murder 
 which so deeply stain the public annals of 
 this period. To carry the analogy to a 
 still higher point, which, though it ascends 
 towards heaven, is not an assumed but a 
 demonstrable point, the principle in ques- 
 tion is inseparably connected with religion. 
 Tenderness and kindness habitually exer- 
 cised towards every being which feels and 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 enjoys its existence, must deserve to be 
 called a part of that affectionate temper of 
 mind, that sweetness of universal benevo- 
 lence, which softens, exalts, and regulates 
 the human heart, and by the power of 
 Divine influence, endues it with those 
 heavenly dispositions, to which the pro- 
 mise of heaven is annexed. 
 
 Arid whither, shall we tremblingly 
 ask, does cruelty lead the human soul ? 
 From the torturing of animals, to that 
 tremendous point of inhumanity, a relish 
 and delight in spectacles of blood thence 
 down the fearful declivity, to the perpetra- 
 tion of the most deliberate murder : and 
 farther onward where Christian charity 
 dares not cast a look. 
 
 " The general prevalence of this ma- 
 llgnant moral distemper, (says a writer* 
 equally energetic and benevolent) calls 
 loudly for some more effective remedy 
 than has ever yet been administered : for 
 though the present age may abound in the 
 
 * " Cursory Remarks on unrestrained Cruelty."- 
 Harvey and Darton, 1823. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 number and variety of its plans of reform, 
 it seems strangely to have overlooked, or 
 rather to have connived at, practices which 
 most effectually neutralize and counteract 
 such designs, and which have the most 
 degrading and brutalising tendency. What 
 can be more disgraceful more directly op- 
 posed to the established religion of the 
 country more destructive of good morals 
 and good manners than the toleration 
 allowed to pugilistic combats ? which not 
 only harden and deprave the spectators, 
 but by their minute and horrid descriptions 
 in the public journals, vitiate the public 
 taste, and sicken and distress all who are 
 not corrupted by such disgusting details." 
 I am tempted to remind ther eader of 
 the conclusion of this animated pamphlet* 
 " These cursory observations on the 
 barbarities exercised in Smithfield market, 
 and on other allowed practices of cruelty 
 will, it is hoped, have some tendency to 
 awaken a more general attention to the 
 subject ; to convince the Christian philan- 
 thropist that no propensity in human na- 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 ture is more directly hostile to the well- 
 being and good order of society to the 
 best concerted plans for its moral improve- 
 ment to every principle of religion and 
 justice, than cruelty: that none calls 
 for severer restrictions ; and that the au- 
 thority of the magistrate cannot be more 
 beneficially* exercised than in taking the 
 most effective measures for the discourage- 
 ment and suppression of this most odious 
 and flagitious propensity." 
 
 These serious remarks prefixed to 
 the following Fable, may appear like a 
 solemn prelude to a lively air, or a grave 
 judge introducing a group of fantoccini. 
 But, ami lecteur, whoever you be, I beg 
 you to bear in mind that in this little 
 cento of prose and rhyme, the earnest is 
 most sincere, and the playful most earnest. 
 And should you laugh at the attempt to 
 sally forth for the rescue of oppressed In- 
 sects, recollect that Virgil himself has im- 
 mortalised the Gnat which was slain by 
 the shepherd, whose life it had benevo- 
 lently sought to save by awakening him 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 when approached by a serpent ; and that 
 Spenser tuned his harp to a mournful 
 elegy on the unfortunate death of Clarion 
 the Butterfly. Surely that chivalrous 
 knight who shall achieve an adventure so 
 difficult as that of reinstating the states of 
 the insect world, in all their lawful rights, 
 privileges and securities, will deserve a 
 laurel wreath, as well as either the Man- 
 tuan Bard, or the Father of English Poetry. 
 And if the enterprise could be extended 
 to the deliverance of all the animal tribes 
 of Beasts, Birds, and Fishes, a civic crown 
 were not too high a reward for such public 
 service. 
 
 To deprecate criticism were equally 
 unnecessary and useless ; Qui s'excuse 
 ^accuse. If an apology were due for 
 publishing a trifle, it ought not to have 
 been published. The high courts of literary 
 judicature this Insect book can never be 
 allowed to enter ; but should it venturously 
 perch upon a critic's head, it has nothing 
 to fear. 
 
 " Who breaks a BUTTERFLY upon the wheel?" 
 
THE 
 
 INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 A FABLE. 
 
 THRO' all the vast nations, that creep, float or fly, 
 In the boundless domains of earth, water, and 
 
 sky, 
 
 The terrors of war spread distress and alarms, 
 For the BIPEDS, for conquest, we*<3 all under 
 
 arms. 
 
 Not a nook of a bank not a chink of a tree, 
 From these daily and nightly invaders was free ; 
 In habit of sportsman, with net, bag, and knife ; 
 With poison and pins for destruction of life, 
 And portable prisons, in which to ensnare 
 
 The captives they seize in the water or air ; 
 
 B 
 
2 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 They come forth by day, then in gloom of the 
 
 eve, 
 
 With nets all illumin'd, steal out to deceive ; 
 An art, to which modern invention's no stranger, 
 By light artificial to lure into danger ; 
 For men are like moths, and will heedlessly run, 
 To the glare of a taper and think it the sun. 
 
 In emergence thus dire, each confederate 
 
 state, 
 
 Agreed on a council for solemn debate. 
 The HUMMING-BIRD SPHINX on her soft- 
 sounding wings, 
 
 Like notes that sweep sweet o'er Eolian strings, 
 Was despa^lfli'd to convene from their airy do- 
 minions, 
 
 The nations innumerous that float upon pinions. 
 The GRASSHOPPER sacred to music of yore, 
 Whom the fam'd Grecian poets profess'd to adore, 
 And plac'd on the harp as an emblem renown'd, 
 Of the science that teaches the knowledge of 
 sound ; 
 
A FABLE. O 
 
 And now, as distinguished for fleetness and 
 
 mirth, 
 
 Invited the states that inhabit the earth. 
 The GNAT, o'er the stream that so lightly can 
 
 dart, 
 
 And in buzzing incessant so well play his part, 
 Was deputed the nations aquatic to wake, 
 That dwell in the regions of stream, fen, or lake. 
 
 The place of assembly was chosen with care, 
 As far as might be, from observance or snare ; 
 In the heart of a forest, where open'd the shade, 
 Disclosing to daylight a sunshiny glade ; 
 Young saplings around spread their tenderest 
 
 green, 
 
 The lords of the wood overtopping the scene ; 
 The bay of a brook, with its mirror of glass, 
 Stealing in thro" the bushes, enlighten 'd the 
 
 grass. 
 Boast monarchs and statesmen, or all of their 
 
 race, 
 
 A chamber of council adorn'd with such grace ? 
 
 B 2 
 
THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 In crowds to the spot all the nations repair, 
 And, save the small Midge, every insect was 
 
 there ; 
 He, (happy distinction ! which greatness ne'er 
 
 knows,) 
 Alike was unheeded by friends or by foes. 
 
 The Butterfly tribe first advanced thro' the 
 
 air, 
 PURPLE EMPEROR led them in splendor most 
 
 rare; 
 
 A race blest by nature with privilege high, 
 To burst from the tomb and ascend to the sky. A 
 Here came the gay PEACOCK with eyes on his 
 
 back, 
 
 And rich ATALANTA, in crimson and black, 
 Light GAMMA, adorn'd with his elegant crest, 
 A Grecian inscription design'd on his vest, 
 And lovely VANESSA, so meek and serene, 
 Array'd like spring leaves, in a robe of pale 
 
 green ; 
 Beside her, (a contrast that oft strikes the sight), 
 
A FABLK. 6 
 
 Came the gay PAINTED LADY, in orange all 
 
 bright. 
 
 In robes green and sable came PRIAM, grave sire, 
 With ADONIS the beau, in his azure attire 
 And SWALLOW-TAIL graceful and ample of wing, 
 In yellow, imperial, like China's great king. 
 The lovely assemblage^ in colors so bright, 
 Red, orange, and purple, blue, yellow, and white, 
 O'erspread all the trees, and, enchanting to view, 
 Mingled soft with the verdure each delicate hue; 
 While fine penciPd lines their gay plumage be- 
 deck, 
 
 In graceful design of streak, atom, or speck ; 
 The motion of life and the richness of bloom 
 United, a wond'rous appearance assume, 
 As if, by the touch of some magical pow'rs, 
 The thicket was peopled with animate flow'rs. 
 
 Next, light as the ether, and almost as rare, 
 The GNATS and EPHEMERA dance thro' the air; 
 Now riding on sunbeams, half-melting in light, 
 
 Now rapid as lightning, escaping from sight; 
 
 B 3 
 
O THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 Interweaving gay movements in intricate play, 
 And enjoying with rapture their life of a day. 
 
 Next arriv'd the light tribes, who so buoy- 
 
 ant of limb 
 
 Can walk on the water, can dive, or can swim ; 
 And, foremost in rank, from his crystal retreat, 
 NOTO-NECTA, the Admiral, led on his fleet. 
 
 And lastly, the tribes of the earth o'er the 
 
 lawn, 
 
 In ample and beauteous arrangement were drawn; 
 Here came DI'MOND BEETLE, so splendidly 
 
 Like a Sultan of Ind, in his jeweFd array ; 
 And with him a train all refulgent he brings, 
 In targets that close o'er their nice-folded wings, 
 Where colors of metals resplendent are set, 
 The burnish of gold and the polish of jet, 
 The emerald's rich green and the amethyst bright, 
 Intermingling their hues with the changes of 
 light. 
 
A FABLE. 7 
 
 It seem'd, that forsaking the caves of their birth, 
 The gems of the mines were emerging to earth. 
 
 Loud humming and buzzing now shook 
 
 ev'ry leaf 
 
 With mingled emotions of terror and grief; 
 The tribes, which by Nature's kind hand were 
 
 prepared 
 
 With weapons offensive, for battle declared. 
 When forth came the DRAGON-FLY, bright to 
 
 behold, 
 In his mantle all checquer'd with black, green, 
 
 and gold ; 
 
 And wheeling in air on his gossamer wings, 
 Like a knight, who careers ere to combat he 
 
 springs, 
 With his keen spacious eyes the assembly sur- 
 
 vey'd, 
 And thus his oration indignantly made. 
 
 " Free tribes of the earth ! here convened in 
 debate, 
 
8 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 " Not small in renown and in multitude great ! 
 " 'Twere right in a cause so momentous as ours, 
 " To estimate fairly our merits and pow'rs ; 
 " And poise in just balance (for surely we can) 
 "The instinct of Insects the reason of Man. B 
 " That attribute boasted by him as so strong, 
 "Directs him to actions now right and now 
 
 wrong ; 
 
 " Nay, often his logic bewilders him quite, 
 " And he fights to maintain that the black is the 
 
 white ! 
 
 " But we, by a wonderful effort of skill, 
 "Are endow'd with such perfect obedience of 
 
 will, 
 
 " That since the first day when our being began, 
 " And in Eden we all were presented to man, 
 " Our instinct, ordain'd for the guide of our way, 
 " Was never yet known to conduct us astray ; 
 "Our talents, our manners, our habits produce 
 " Unerring effects for our comfort and use. 
 " Then shew the superior gifts you inherit, 
 " And stand forth, demonstrated, Insects of merit ! 
 
A FABLE. 9 
 
 " In such an assembly, 'twere vain to re- 
 trace 
 
 " The injuries suffered, too long, by our race ; 
 " And if we endure them and tamely submit, 
 <' We are either deficient in courage or wit ! 
 " With regard to our intellect, prove it we can, 
 " We possess a large portion as well as king 
 
 MAN: 
 
 " He boasts of inventions as newly devin'd, 
 " Which to us were familiar from time out of 
 
 mind ! 
 "Friend GNAT! 'tis well known that, your 
 
 offspring to save, 
 
 "You invented the life-boat to float on the wave ; c 
 "And the SPIDERS, who love an aerial station, 
 "Have used air-balloons ever since the creation. D 
 " While Man, slow in arts, fram'd his dwelling 
 
 of mud, 
 " With a bundle of straw, and rough rafters of 
 
 wood ; 
 
 " The architect ANT, noble cities outlaid, 8 
 " With street geometric, and long colonnade ! 
 
10 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 "With regard to inventions, which moderns 
 assume, 
 
 " Of wonderful pow'rs in the arts of the loom ; 
 
 " Our weaver, the SILKWORM, e'er since the 
 beginning, F 
 
 " Has shewn far superior machinery in spin- 
 ning. 
 
 " To pomp, fashion, commerce, what wonderful 
 boons 
 
 " She confers on mankind by her precious 
 cocoons ! 
 
 " For, like the fam'd goose, in the fable of old, 
 
 " The eggs that she lays are indeed eggs of gold ! 
 
 " Then as to our trades, we can show, if you 
 will, 
 
 " Mechanics, whose industry rivals their skill ; 
 
 "We have Carpenters, Tailors, and Grave-diggers 
 too, 
 
 " And sempstresses neat, who can cleverly sew. 
 
 " Cousin BEE! I shall give you no more than 
 your due, 
 
 " If I say Man is no better builder than you ! 
 
A FABLE. II 
 
 "And for chemical skill, all his genius and 
 
 money 
 "Have not yet instructed him how to make 
 
 honey ! 
 
 " Then as to the point of political science, 
 " Tis very well known, you may bid him defiance, 
 "Let him traverse his earth, and he cannot 
 
 produce 
 
 " A state, like your hive, for art, labour, and use. 
 " Friend EMMET, renown 'd mid the labouring 
 
 kind, 
 
 " I beg you will not undervalue your mind ; 
 " You are very sagacious, and though it is said, 
 "You imitate man in a certain base trade, 
 " Making slaves of your Negroes in that you're 
 
 his debtor, 
 "He gives the example you ought to know 
 
 better ! 
 " Come, free all your slaves, and deserve our 
 
 applause, 
 " And nobly unite in our patriot cause ! 
 
12 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 " Come then, my brave friends ! let us view 
 
 our resources, 
 
 " Examine our arms, and arrange all our forces. 
 " Prepare for defence ! we have weapons in store, 
 " That our tyrant at length may be brought to 
 
 deplore. 
 
 " We have lances and darts of a temper so fine, H 
 " As mere human artists must fail to design. 
 " Sir HORNET ! you're arm'd, like the heroes 
 
 of old, 
 " With a lance of keen point and I know you 
 
 are bold. 
 "STAG BEETLE! your antlers, though small 
 
 be their span, 
 
 " May very soon cripple the fingers of Man ! 
 " Cousin WASP ! for light archers, we fix upon 
 
 " For your poison 'd arrows much mischief may 
 
 do. 
 
 " And as to myself, you will own, without doubt, 
 " I shall make for our army an excellent scout ! l 
 
A FABLE. 13 
 
 " Still ready to fly, at the slightest alarms, 
 " A centinel faithful, who sleeps on his arms. 
 
 " Behold ! what vast forces ! unite, Insect 
 
 pow'rs, 
 
 "Fight, steady and dauntless and victory is 
 ours !" . 
 
 The orator ceas'd and from myriads of 
 
 wings, 
 The tribes who had not, and the tribes who had 
 
 stings, 
 
 Re-echo'd applause in continuous roar, 
 Like the winds on the forest or waves on the 
 
 shore ; 
 
 When, foremost the valiant suggestion to seize, 
 In dignified grace, rose the QUEEN of the Bees. 
 Aloft on an elm stood her majesty sweet, 
 With her subjects obedient in swarms at her feet. 
 In a moment, with chivalrous homage profound, 
 Each pinion is folded, and hush'd ev'ry sound ; 
 
 c 
 
14 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 All tribes and all parties unanimous own, 
 Such honor is due to the feminine Throne. 
 
 Her thanks with a grace, the fair sov'reign 
 
 express'd, 
 
 And thus, in firm tone, the assembly address 'd. 
 " Most honor'd Allies ! I shall firmly unite 
 " In the plan thus propos'd in defence of our 
 
 right. 
 
 " We here are assembled, confederate in zeal, 
 " To consult and to act for the general weal ; 
 " And, added to wrongs that have troubled of 
 
 late 
 
 " The welfare and peace of each separate state, 
 " My nation of old from the proud human race, 
 " Has suffer'd oppression most cruel and base 1 
 
 " ? Tis very well known, that since time first 
 
 began, 
 
 " My subjects all toil for the lux'ry of man ; 
 " Collect and condense all the essences fine, 
 " His table to grace with confections and wine 
 
A FABLE. 15 
 
 " They labor all summer when, savagely rude, 
 " In winter he slays them to feast on their food ! 
 " Too long have I witness'd, with terror and pain, 
 " My citadels storm'd, and my children all slain ! 
 
 " Tis time that I rouse me, such subjects 
 
 to sa?ve, 
 
 " So faithful, industrious, skilful, and brave ! 
 " For never, since Man from his duty first fell, 
 " Have my loyal people been known to rebel. 
 "They shew to mankind an example most 
 
 strange 
 
 " A well-order'd government, never to change ! 
 "Thus deeply impressed by their virtues and 
 
 wrongs, 
 
 " I feel that redress to their sov'reign belongs ; 
 " And happy to execute duty so high, 
 " I'll lead them to combat avenge them or 
 
 die !" 
 
 She spake and stood ready to marshal her train, 
 
 Like her brave sister sov'reign on Tilbury's plain. 
 
 c 2 
 
16 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 Here plaudits redoubled reverb'rate around, 
 And the circuit of air seems a chaos of sound ; 
 Wasps, Hornets, and Bees, war and victory 
 
 breath 'd, 
 Each trunk was extended each sting was un- 
 
 sheath'd. 
 
 In this critical space, like a counsellor, sage, 
 Uniting to valor the caution of age, 
 Who thinks ere he speaks, and who speaks 
 
 what he thinks, 
 Grave, manly, and calm, rose the ATROPOS 
 
 SPHINX, 
 
 In rich velvet vesture of orange and brown, 
 And, emblem of wisdom, a skull on his crown ; 
 His station he took on the leaf of an oak, 
 And thus with deliberate eloquence spoke. 
 
 " Permit me, my friends, ere you rashly 
 
 engage, 
 
 " 'Gainst Man's mighty forces fierce combat to 
 wage, 
 
A FABLE. J7 
 
 " With deference and friendly advice, if I can, 
 " To propose a more prudent and dignified plan. 
 " I honor that zeal, which so fearless I see, 
 " In the valiant Sir Dragon and heroine Bee, 
 " Tis a true British feeling, thus bravely to fight, 
 "In defence of our offspring, our friends, and 
 
 our right. 
 "For though, from my conscience, I battle 
 
 oppose, 
 
 " Yet deeply I mourn the extent of our woes. 
 " Yes, friends ! be assur'd that I feel with keen 
 
 pain, 
 
 " The myriads of victims thus tortur'd and slain ; 
 "And think not your counsellor tremblingly 
 
 shrinks, 
 (" No far be such shame from a true-hearted 
 
 sphinx !) 
 
 " From danger or death but a way I'll devise, 
 " More just, constitutional, worthy, and wise, 
 " To save all our nations, and this is my plan, 
 "That instead of resislitig, we reason with 
 
 Man, 
 
 c3 
 
18 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 "Explaining our wrongs and our rights with 
 
 submission ; 
 " I therefore propose that we send a petition." 
 
 He spake and the tribes of the butterfly 
 
 kind, 
 
 To virtues pacific and gentle inclined, 
 Supported their leader with loud acclamations, 
 But murmurs were heard from the warrior 
 
 nations. 
 
 At length, by majority, able and true, 
 The motion was carried with victory due ; 
 The Petition was voted applauses were warm, 
 And counsellor ATROPOS drew up the form ; 
 PRAYING MANTIS was calPd, who by nature 
 
 was meant 
 
 A supplicant gentle, the same to present, 
 And in posture persuasive, with grace all his own, 
 To lay it in form at the foot of the throne. 
 
A FABLE. 19 
 
 petition. 
 
 To His Majesty MAN, lawful Sovereign, by birth, 
 Of all Beasts, Birds, Fish, Insects, that dwell on 
 
 the earth ; 
 
 In whom, with their trust, their allegiance unites, 
 PROTECTOR in chief of lives, properties, rights, 
 The nations of INSECTS, convoked in debate, 
 In humble petition, respectfully state 
 
 That your Majesty's subjects, for time out 
 
 of mind, 
 Have liv'd midst the blessings by HEAVEN 
 
 designed ; 
 Whose wisdom and goodness, which shine forth 
 
 the same, 
 In our structure minute, and your wonderful 
 
 frame, 
 
 To life gave enjoyment, a general dower, 
 From your throne in the world, to our house in 
 
 a flower. 
 
20 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 In the rapture of freedom, we glanc'd 'mid the 
 
 bow'rs, 
 
 And sipp'd, without danger, the nectar of flow'rs ; 
 Then curl'd our proboscis, and slept on a leaf, 
 Nor dreamt of awaking to slavery and grief! 
 Unmolested we liv'd, except now and then chas'd 
 And enbalm'd to adorn some museum of taste ; 
 Or inclos'd in the hat of the mischievous boy, 
 Who sees in a Butterfly only a toy. 
 But times are all alter'd. Permit us to state 
 In your Majesty's ear, a reverse in our fate ! 
 For now if fatigued with our frolics, we close 
 Our pinions to rest on the lap of a rose, 
 The Fowler's keen eye spreads his muslin de- 
 vice, 
 
 And the terrible clappers are clos'd in a trice ! 
 Then closely confin'd, in the box or the glass, 
 How sick'ning ! how lingering the moments we 
 
 pass ! 
 
 Some captives, impatient for freedom and air, 
 Beat the walls of their prison in restless despair; 
 
A FABLE. 21 
 
 Some motionless wait till death's pang shall 
 
 begin 
 
 In the dread boiling water or poisonous pin ! 
 Should we suffer for science to teach you to 
 
 find, 1 
 
 In the works of Creation the governing MIND; 
 To admire ho.w omnipotent skill could condense 
 In our form of a pointy beauty, usefulness, sense ; 
 Should we suffer to lead you to knowledge so 
 
 high, 
 
 We should deem it our duty in silence to die. 
 By Charter Divine we are subject to you, 
 And if we can serve you, our life is your due ; 
 But should that be claim'd on a lawful pretence, 
 To take it by torture is, sure, an offence. 
 Your SOVEREIGN SUPREME who that charter 
 
 nas lent, 
 Annexed to the bounty no right to torment. 
 
 Of late has arisen, our race to o'erwhelm, 
 A practice that fashion has spread through the 
 realm, 
 
22 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, 
 
 A species of slave-trade ! New merchants arise, 
 In this kingdom of commerce, who traffic in 
 
 Flies; 
 
 And send out their agents abroad and at home, 
 For cargoes of Insects, industrious to roam, 
 Put quite out of question our rank in creation, 
 And make us mere objects of base speculation. 
 Among all the tribes that acknowledge your 
 
 right, 
 
 From Giant Rhinoceros down to the Mite, 
 Say, have you a colony, 'mid all your pow'rs 
 Upheld and supported so cheaply as ours ? 
 Independent and frugal, ourselves we maintain, 
 Nor tax your Exchequer no, not for a grain. 
 
 We steal not your honey, you first have your due, 
 For our friends of the Hive labour solely {or you. 
 For invisible food, we industriously roam, 
 And the curl of a leaf is our shelter and home ; 
 Your store-house of viands, your treasuries of 
 
 grain, 
 And all the vast wealth of your boundless domain, 
 
A FABLE. 23 
 
 To us no vain thirst of ambition can give 
 We crave but one favor permission to live ! 
 And we feel you will grant a petition so just, 
 (Your Majesty's character warrants the trust,) 
 For fame has describ'd you possessing a mind, 
 En lighten' d, benevolent, lib'ral, and kind. 
 
 That your reign may be blest, and your 
 subjects true, all, 
 
 From the fly on your hand to the horse in your 
 stall ; 
 
 While with gen'rous protection their rights you 
 defend, 
 
 Not merely their sov'reign their father, their 
 friend ; 
 
 Enjoying that godlike delight in your breast, 
 
 Of loving your subjects and seeing them blest ; 
 
 Supplying their wants, and their inj'ries re- 
 dressing, 
 
 And using your pow'r for the purpose of bless- 
 ing. 
 
24 THE INSECTS IN COUNCIL, &C. 
 
 And that JUSTICE and MERCY may govern your 
 
 sway, 
 We, your dutiful subjects, shall faithfully pray, 
 
 Sec. &c. 
 
 Signed 
 
 For the nation of Lepidoptera ATROPOS 
 
 SPHINX. Deaths-Head Moth. 
 
 Neuroptera LIBELLULA 
 
 Dragon-Fly. 
 
 Coleoptera Luc AN us 
 
 CERVUS. Stag-Beetle. 
 Hymenoptera APIS. Bee. 
 
 &c. &c. &c. 
 May 1st, 1828. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 A " A race blest by Nature with privilege high, 
 " To burst from the tomb and ascend to the sky." 
 
 The Abbe de la Pluche calls the butterflies, " des 
 ressuscites du peuple chenille, mais des ressuscites a 
 qui Ton n'a pas accorde I'immortalite avec la nouvelle 
 vie." (Spectacle de la Nature.) 
 
 " Were a naturalist to announce to the world the 
 discovery of an animal which, for the first five years 
 of its life, existed in the form of a serpent ; which 
 then penetrating into the earth, and weaving a shroud 
 of pure silk of the finest texture, contracted itself 
 within this covering into a body without external 
 mouth or limbs, and resembling more than any thing 
 else, an Egyptian mummy; and which, lastly, after 
 remaining in this state without "food or motion for 
 three years longer, should, at the end of that period, 
 burst its silken cerements, struggle through its earthy 
 covering, and start into day a winged bird, what, 
 think you, would be the sensation excited by this 
 
20 NOTES. 
 
 strange piece of intelligence ? After the first doubts 
 of its truth were dispelled, what astonishment would 
 succeed ! Amongst the learned what surmises ! what 
 investigations 1 Amongst the vulgar, what eager curi- 
 osity and amazement ! All would be interested in 
 the history of such an unheard-of phenomenon ; even 
 the most torpid would flock to the eight of such a 
 prodigy. 
 
 But you ask, " to what do all these improbable 
 suppositions tend ?'' Simply to rouse your attention 
 to the metamorphoses of the insect world, almost as 
 strange and surprising, to which I am now about to 
 direct your view, miracles, which, though scarcely 
 surpassed in singularity by all that poets have feigned, 
 and though actually wrought every day beneath our 
 eyes, are, because of their commonness and the mi- 
 nuteness of the objects, unheeded alike by the 
 ignorant and the learned. 
 
 That butterfly, which amuses you with its aerial 
 excursions, one while extracting nectar from the tube 
 of the honeysuckle, and then, the very image of fickle- 
 ness, flying to a rose, as if to contrast the hue of its 
 wings with that of the flower on which it reposes 
 did not come into the world as you now behold it. 
 At its first exclusion from the egg, and for some 
 months afterwards, it was a worm-like caterpillar, 
 crawling upon sixteen short legs, greedily devouring 
 leaves with two jaws, and seeing by the means of 
 
NOTES. 27 
 
 twelve eyes, so minute as to be nearly imperceptible 
 without the aid of a microscope. You now view it 
 furnished with wings capable of rapid and extensive 
 flights: of its sixteen feet ten have disappeared, and 
 the remaining six are in most respects wholly unlike 
 those to which they have succeeded ; its jaws have 
 vanished, and are replaced by a curled-up proboscis, 
 suited only for sipping liquid sweets ; the form of its 
 head is entirely changed, two long horns project 
 from its upper surface ; and, instead of twelve invisible 
 eyes, you behold two, very large, and composed of at 
 least twenty thousand convex lenses, each supposed 
 to be a distinct and effective eye ! 
 
 Were you to push your examination further, and 
 by dissection to compare the internal conformation of 
 the caterpillar with that of the butterfly, you would 
 witness changes even more extraordinary. In the 
 former you would find some thousands of muscles, 
 which in the latter are replaced by others of a form 
 and structure entirely different, Nearly the whole 
 body of the caterpillar is occupied by a capacious 
 stomach. In the butterfly this has become converted 
 into an almost imperceptible thread-like viscus ; and 
 the abdomen is now filled by two large packets of 
 eggs, or other organs not visible an the first state. 
 In the former, two spirally-convoluted tubes were 
 filled with a silky gum ; in the latter, both tubes and 
 
 silk have almost totally vanished : and changes 
 
 D 2 
 
28 NOTES. 
 
 equally great have taken place in the economy and 
 structure of the nerves and other organs. 
 
 What a surprising transformation ! Nor was 
 this all. The change from one form to another was 
 not direct. An intermediate state not less singular 
 intervened. After casting its skin even to its very 
 jaws, several times, and attaining its full growth, the 
 caterpillar attached itself to a leaf by a silken girth. 
 Its body greatly contracted, its skin once more split 
 asunder, and disclosed an oviform mass, without 
 exterior mouth, eyes, or limbs, and exhibiting no 
 other symptom of life than a slight motion when 
 touched. In this state of death-like torpor, and 
 without tasting food, the insect existed several months, 
 until at length the tomb burst, and out of a case not 
 more than an inch long, and a quarter of an inch in 
 diameter, proceeded the butterfly before you, which 
 covers a surface of nearly four inches square. 
 
 Almost every insect which you see has undergone 
 a transformation as singular and surprising, though 
 varied in many of its circumstances. That active 
 little fly, now an unbidden guest at your table, whose 
 delicate palate selects your choicest viands, one while 
 extending his proboscis to the margin of a drop of 
 wine, and then gaily flying to take a more solid repast 
 from a pear or a peach ; now gamboling with his 
 comrades in the air, now gracefully currying his furled 
 wings with his taper feet, was, but the other day, a 
 
NOTES. 29 
 
 disgusting grub, without wings, without legs, without 
 eyes, wallowing well pleased, in the midst of a mass 
 of excrement. 
 
 The " grey-coated gnat," whose humming salu* 
 tation, while she makes her airy circles about your 
 bed, gives terrific warning of the sanguinary operation 
 in which she is ready to engage, was, a few hours 
 ago, the inhabitant of a stagnant pool, more in shape 
 like a fish thaji an insect. Then to have been taken 
 out of the water, would have been speedily fatal ; now 
 it could as little exist in any other element than air. 
 Then it breathed through its tail, now through open- 
 ings in its sides. Its shapeless head, in that period of 
 its existence, is now exchanged for one adorned with 
 elegantly tufted antennae, and furnished, instead of 
 jaws, with an apparatus more artfully constructed than 
 the cupping glasses of the phlebotomist an apparatus 
 which, at the same time that it strikes in the lancets, 
 composes a tube for pumping up the flowing blood. 
 
 The " shard-born beetle" whose " sullen horn," 
 as he directs his " droning flight" close past your ears 
 in your evening walk, calling up in poetic association 
 the lines in which he has been alluded to by Shakspeare, 
 Collins, and Gray, was not in his infancy an inhabi- 
 tant of air ; the first period of his life being spent in 
 gloomy solitude, as a grub, under the surface of the 
 earth. The shapeless maggot, which you scarcely 
 fail to meet with in some one of every handful of nuts 
 
30 NOTES. 
 
 you crack, would not always have grovelled in that 
 humble state. If your unlucky intrusion upon its 
 vaulted dwelling had not left it to perish in the wide 
 world, it would have continued to reside there until 
 its full growth had been attained. Then it would 
 have gnawed itself an opening, and having entered 
 the earth, and passed a few months in a state of 
 inaction, would at length have emerged an elegant 
 beetle, furnished with a slender and very long ebony 
 beak, two wings, and two wing-cases ornamented 
 with yellow bands, six feet, and in every respect un- 
 like the worm from which it proceeded. 
 
 That bee *but it is needless to multiply instances. 
 A sufficient number has been already adduced to 
 show, that the apparently extravagant supposition 
 with which I set out may be paralleled in the insect 
 world ; and that the metamorphoses of its inhabitants 
 are scarcely less astonishing than would be the trans- 
 formation of a serpent into an eagle. 
 
 The striking analogy between the transformation 
 of the caterpillar into the butterfly, and the earthly 
 and heavenly state of man, was familiar to the an- 
 cients, the same word in Greek being used for the 
 human soul and a butterfly. Swammerdam expresses 
 his idea of this coincidence in the following strong 
 terms " This process (of transformation) is formed 
 in so remarkable a manner, that we see therein the 
 resurrection painted before our eyes, and exemplified 
 
NOTES. 31 
 
 so as to be examined by our hands." The beautiful 
 little Poem, " The Butterfly's Birth-day," will occur 
 to every reader. Kirby and Spence, v. I, p. 76. 
 
 B " T/ie instinct of insects the reason of man." 
 
 Instinct, which is far more wonderful and com- 
 plicated in insects than in larger animals, has never 
 yet been justly, defined either by Naturalists or Meta- 
 physicians, and can only be called an unknown faculty 
 implanted in them by their Creator, by which they are 
 impelled to certain action s r generally invariably the 
 same, and yet when circumstances direct a deviation, 
 so adapted as to give a semblance of reason in the 
 actor. Such is the activity and good sense of the Bees, 
 in building walls of wax and propolis at the door of 
 their hives, when attacked by the night thieves, the 
 Hawk Moths, and leaving one or two small openings 
 to admit their own workers. And a still more striking 
 instance is the following fact from Huber. " He placed 
 in front of a comb which the bees were constructing, 
 a slip of glass. They were immediately aware that 
 they could not attach their comb to so slippery a 
 surface, and therefore bent it at a right angle, and 
 fixed it to a part of the woodwork beyond the glass ; 
 but this threw the symmetry of the comb all wrong. 
 The resources of their instinct were, however, adequate 
 to the emergency. They made the cells on the con- 
 
32 NOTES. 
 
 vex of the bent part of the comb much larger, and 
 those on the concave side much smaller than usual. 
 But this was not all. As the bottoms of the small and 
 large cells were, as usual common to both, the cells 
 were not regular prisms, but the small ones consider- 
 ably wider at the bottom than at the top ; and con- 
 versely in the large ones ! What conception can we 
 form of so wonderful a flexibility of instinct?'* Kir- 
 by and Spence, vol. 2, p. 495, 2nd edition. 
 
 Another instance of the instinct of insects, adapt- 
 ing itself to circumstances, which is the province of 
 reason, is the following; " The Apis- terrestris, a 
 bee that lives in the earth, when molested with num- 
 bers of small mites, which feed upon it, will go and 
 stand upon an ant-hill, when it kicks and scratches 
 and makes a disturbance, to provoke the ants to come 
 out, which they soon do, and falling upon the mites, 
 destroy or carry them all off, and the bee, delivered 
 from its tormentors, flies away," Kirby and Spence, 
 vol. 2, p. 268. 
 
 The caterpillar of the cabbage butterfly, when it 
 is about to prepare its habitation for its chrysalis state, 
 commonly fixes it under the coping or projection of a 
 wall ; but as the slender thread which serves for its 
 girth, a thread that passes round its body, would not 
 adhere to brick or stone, it first covers a space of 
 the wall with a web of silk, and to this broad base 
 fastens its girth. If fed in a box covered with muslin, 
 
NOTES. 33 
 
 it soon perceives that the muslin will answer the pur- 
 pose of fixing its thread, and agreeably to this reason- 
 ing, spins no preparatory web. 
 
 Huber observed a bee soldering the angles of a 
 cell with propolis ; she cut off a thread of this mate- 
 rial, measured it by the angle, found it too long, and 
 cut off a portion to make it exactly suit her purpose. 
 
 Dr. Darwin observed a wasp on the gravel walk 
 in his garden, with a fly nearly as large as itself. He 
 distinctly saw it cut off the head and tail, and then 
 taking up the trunk with its feet, fly away. But a 
 breeze blowing the wings of the fly which remained 
 on the trunk, whirled round the wasp, which, finding 
 it could not get on with this impediment, alighted on 
 the walk, and having deliberately sawed off first one 
 wing and then the other, easily flew off with its prey. 
 Was not this reasoning ? 
 
 A party of burying beetles, which bury dead 
 bodies in the earth for food, finding a dead toad fixed 
 to dry by a Naturalist, on the top of a stick, and 
 being unable to reach it, undermined the base of the 
 stick till it fell, and then buried both toad and stick* 
 
 c " You invented the life-boat to float on the wave," fyc* 
 
 The eggs of this insect (the common gnat) of along 
 phial-like form, are glued together, side by side, to 
 the number of from 250 to 300, into an oblong mass, 
 
34 NOTES. 
 
 pointed and more elevated at each end, so as con- 
 siderably to resemble a little boat in shape. You 
 must not here suppose that I use the term boat by 
 way of illustration merely ; for it has all the essential 
 properties of a boat. In shape it pretty accurately 
 resembles a London wherry, being sharp and higher, 
 to use a nautical phrase, fore and aft ; convex below 
 and concave above ; floating, moreover, constantly on 
 the keel or convex part. But this is not all. It is 
 besides a life-boat, more buoyant than even Mr. 
 Greathead's : the most violent agitation of the water 
 cannot sink it ; and what is more extraordinary, and 
 a property still a desideratum in our life-boats, though 
 hollow it never becomes filled with water, even though 
 exposed to the torrents that often accompany a thun- 
 der-storm. To put this to the test, I yesterday (July 
 25, 1811), placed half a dozen of these boats upon 
 the surface of a tumbler half full of water ; I then 
 poured upon them a stream of that element from the 
 mouth of a quart bottle held a foot above them. Yet 
 after this treatment, which was so rough as actually 
 to project one out of the glass, I found them floating 
 as before upon their bottoms, and not a drop of water 
 within their cavity. Kirby and Spence. 
 
 D " Have used air-balloons ever since the creation," fyc. 
 
 That the spider can balance itself downwards upon 
 its line, every one knows'; but that it can shoot itself 
 
NOTES. 35 
 
 upwards and sail in the air, high above the highest 
 steeple of York Minster seems incredible yet it is a 
 fact. These air-balloon spiders, which can move in the 
 air faster than the air itself, when they are inclined to 
 take an aerial excursion, first extend their thighs, 
 shanks, and feet into a right line ; and then elevating 
 the abdomen till it becomes vertical, shoot a thread up 
 into the air, and dart upwards upon it. But as in- 
 sects (more wise than man,) never act without a 
 reasonable motive, the object of these expeditions is, 
 probably, to catch in their flying nets, the gnats and 
 small flies that float in the air. Kirby and Spence, 
 v. 2.> 339, &c. 
 
 The fact of spiders traversing the air was no se j 
 cret to the ancients, as the epithet of air-flying is 
 applied to these insects by Hesiod. A few more facts 
 will shew the wonderful abilities of this insect ; and 
 we shall have no small satisfaction, if the reader, be- 
 holding in the spider, no longer a cruel and rapacious 
 destroyer, but contemplating him in his real character, 
 as an admirable geometrician a most ingenious con- 
 triver a patient hunter of his appointed food, and a 
 friend of man, in destroying noxious insects, shall 
 change his disgust into admiration, and his antipathy 
 into affection. 
 
 " How would the world crowd," says Kirby, "to 
 see a fox which should spin ropes, weave them into 
 an accurately meshed net, and extend this net be- 
 
36 NOTES. 
 
 tween two trees, for the purpose of entangling a flight 
 of birds ! " Yet there is nothing in this more wonder- 
 ful than the contrivances of the spider. The thread 
 spun by the weavers (all spiders do not spin webs,) is 
 similar to that of the silkworm and other caterpillars, 
 but much finer. In them it proceeds from reservoirs, 
 and is spun from the mouth ; but in the spider it is 
 spun from the hinder part of the abdomen, where are 
 placed four small protuberances, or spinners. These 
 are the machinery through which the thread, by a 
 more singular process than that of rope-making, is 
 drawn. This thread is not single but compound ; 
 for in each of these spinners are a multitude of tubes, 
 se exquisitely fine, and so numerous, that in a space 
 not larger than the point of a pin may be found a 
 thousand of them. From each of these thousand 
 tubes (which consist of two pieces, the last termina- 
 ting in a point infinitely fine,) proceeds a thread of in- 
 conceivable tenuity, making one thousand threads^ 
 which immediately unite into one, and form the thread 
 we are accustomed to see the spider use in making her 
 web ; and as it proceeds from four spinners, this 
 thread is composed of four thousand threads. 
 
 Leeuwenhock calculated, that the threads of the 
 minutest spiders, some of which are not bigger than 
 a grain of sand, are so fine, that it would take four 
 millions of them to make a thread as thick as a hair. 
 It follows that sixteen thousa nd millions of spiders* 
 
NOTES. 37 
 
 threads are not together thicker than a hair. This is 
 an instance of tenuity beyond the power of imagina- 
 tion to conceive. The idea may fairly confound the 
 faculties of man, and make him recollect that when 
 he crushes a spider he destroys one of the most 
 striking specimens of Infinite power and wisdom. 
 
 The spider spins with her feet, two of which are 
 provided underneath with claws having teeth like a 
 comb, to keep the threads asunder ; but as, in ascending 
 her line when she has dropped from an eminence, she 
 winds up the line into a ball, the comb claws could 
 not perform this, so her provident Creator has given 
 her another claw for this purpose, placed between the 
 other two. 
 
 Thus bountifully provided with implements of 
 industry, the spider exhibits, in an astonishing degree, 
 the virtues of patience and perseverance in toiling for 
 her maintenance. The weaver, viz. the spider that is 
 found in houses, weaves what may justly be called 
 webs. Having found a convenient corner, she glues 
 one end of her thread to it ; then walking along the 
 wall, she fastens the other end to the opposite side. 
 This thread, which is to form the selvage of the web, 
 she doubles and quadruples ; then draws other threads 
 from it, which she fills up, till the web becomes that 
 gauze-like texture which we see. When the weavers 
 spread their nets in out-houses or among bushes, they 
 carry up from them a number of threads, crossing 
 
38 NOTES. 
 
 each other like the tackling of a ship, to entangle the 
 flies. Kirby and Spence. 
 
 E " The architect Ant noble cities outlaid," fyc. 
 
 The nest of Formica brunnea, is composed 
 wholly of earth, and consists of about forty stories, 
 twenty above and twenty below the surface of the 
 soil. Each story contains saloons, smaller apart- 
 ments, and long galleries of communication between. 
 The arched roofs of the most spacious apartments are 
 supported by thin walls, or, occasionally, by small 
 pillars or buttresses. The main galleries, several of 
 which sometimes meet in one large saloon, communi- 
 cate with other subterranean passages, which often 
 run several feet from the ant-hill. These little masons, 
 who work chiefly after sun-set, employ soft clay only, 
 which they scrape from the bottom of the nest, when 
 it is sufficiently moistened by a shower, and this, far 
 from injuring, strengthens and consolidates their 
 architecture. This they convey in small masses be 
 tween their mandibles or jaws, and with the same 
 instruments spread and mould it to their will, the an- 
 tennse or feelers accompanying ; to make all firm 
 they press the surface lightly with their fore feet : and 
 though they use no glutinous material, these numerous 
 
NOTES. 39 
 
 masses of soft clay appear, when finished, one single 
 layer consolidated. Having traced the plan of their 
 structure by placing here and there the foundations 
 of the pillars and partition walls, they add new portions; 
 and when the walls of a gallery or apartment, which 
 are half a line thick, are elevated about half an inch 
 high, they join them by springing a flattish arch or 
 roof from one side to the other. Nothing can be a 
 more interesting spectacle than one of these cities 
 while building. In one place, vertical walls form the 
 outline, communicating, by openings in the masonry, 
 with different corridors : in another we see a true 
 saloon, whose vaults are supported by numerous 
 pillars ; and farther on are the cross ways or squares 
 where several streets meet : the roofs of these squares, 
 though often more than two inches across, the ants 
 find no difficulty in constructing. They begin the 
 sides of the arch in the angle formed by two walls, 
 and extend them by successive layers of clay till they 
 meet ; while crowds of masons arrive from all parts 
 with their particles of mortar, working with a regu- 
 larity, harmony, and activity, which can never be 
 enough admired. So assiduous are they all in their 
 operations, that they will complete a story with all its 
 saloons, vaulted roof, partitions, and galleries, in seven 
 or eight hours. If they begin a story, and for want 
 of moisture to soften the clay, are unable to finish it, 
 
 E 2 
 
40 NOTES, 
 
 they pull down all the crumbling apartments that are 
 not covered in. Another species of masons, viz. For- 
 mica fusca, when they wish to add another story to 
 their habitation, cover the top with a thick layer of 
 clay, and then scoop out the apartments, like grottos, 
 heightening and covering them in. M. Huber saw a 
 single ant make and cover a gallery two or three inches 
 long, without assistance. 
 
 Another society of ants, Formica faliginosa, 
 build their cities in the trunks of old oaks or willows, 
 gnawing the wood into numberless stories, sometimes 
 supported by vertical partitions, forming numberless 
 apartments, communicating by small apertures, and 
 sometimes by small light pillars, with a base and 
 capital, arranged in colonnades. Other tribes of 
 carpenter ants use saw-dust, some for building walls 
 and stopping up chinks ; and some for whole stories, 
 making it into a sort of papier mdche, with earth and 
 spider's web. Huber, Recherches sur les Mceurs 
 des Fourmis. 
 
 This astonishing display of Almighty skill, in 
 compressing within the minute form of this insect such 
 wonderful prudence of mind and activity of body, may 
 well shame the vast intellect and giant strength of 
 man, and make him receive with humility the Scripture 
 admonition, " Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider 
 her ways, and be wise." 
 
NOTES. 41 
 
 F " Our weaver, the silk-wormy e'er since the beginning," $c. 
 
 " Of the larva which inclose themselves in 
 silk, the most familiarly known is the silk- worm : the 
 cocoon of this consists exteriorly of a thin, transparent, 
 gauze-like coating, through the interstices of which 
 can be seen an inner, smaller, oval ball, of a more 
 close and compact nature. The whole is, in fact, 
 composed of one single thread, but arranged in two 
 distinct modes. To form the exterior envelope, which 
 is merely the scaffolding by means of which the inner 
 and more solid covering is constructed, the caterpillar, 
 after fixing upon a space between two leaves, or twigs, 
 or angles suitable for its purpose, begins by glueing 
 one end of its thread to one of the adjoining surfaces. 
 This thread it next conducts to another part and then 
 fastens, repeating this process and interlacing it in 
 various directions, until it has surrounded itself with 
 a slight and loosely spun netting. In the centre of 
 this, when contracted into a space sufficiently small, 
 it lays the foundation of the interior cocoon. Fixing 
 itself by its prolegs to some of the surrounding threads 
 it bends its body, and by successive motions of its 
 head from side to side, spins a layer of silk on the side 
 opposite to it : when this is of the requisite thickness, 
 the larva shifts its position, and repeats the same 
 process in another quarter, covering each layer in turn 
 with a new one until the interior cavity is reduced tcv 
 
42 NOTES. 
 
 the size desired. Thus, the silken thread which forms 
 this new cocoon is not, as might have been supposed, 
 wound circularly as we wind the thread of a ball of 
 cotton; but backwards and forwards in a series of 
 zigzags, so as to compose a number of distinct layers. 
 Malpighi could distinguish six of these layers, and 
 Reaumur suspects there is often a greater number. 
 The former found the length of the thread of silk com- 
 posing them when wound off, without including the 
 exterior case, to be not less than 930 feet ; but others 
 have computed it at more than a thousand ; conse- 
 quently the threads of five cocoons united would be a 
 mile in length. Estimating by the weight, the thread 
 of a pound of cocoons, each of which weighs about 
 two grains and a half, would extend more than 600 
 miles, and such is its tenuity, that the threads of five 
 or six cocoons require to be joined to form one of the 
 thickness requisite in the silk manufacture. It is the 
 continuous thread of the inner cocoon which is most 
 valuable : the outer loose coating from its irregularity 
 cannot be wound off, and is known in commerce by 
 the name of floss silk. 
 
 " The mode of producing and manufacturing 
 silk was not known in Europe till long after the Chris- 
 tian sera, being first learned about the year 550, by 
 two Monks who procured in India the eggs of the 
 silkworm moth, and conveyed them, concealed in 
 hollow canes, to Constantinople, whence they were 
 
NOTES. 43 
 
 introduced into Italy. Silk was not cultivated in 
 France till the time of Henry 4th, and in our own 
 island it was so scarce in the time of James 1st, that 
 that monarch, when King of Scotland, borrowed of 
 the Earl of Mar a pair of silk stockings, to appear in 
 before the English Ambassador, enforcing his request 
 with this cogent appeal " for ye would not, sure, 
 that your king should appear as a scrub before 
 strangers." Nay, long before this period, even prior 
 to the time that silk was valued at its weight of gold 
 at Rome, and the Emperor Aurelian refused his Em- 
 press a robe of silk because of its dearness the 
 Chinese peasantry in some of the provinces, millions 
 in number,were clothed with this material ; and for some 
 thousand years to the present time, it has been both 
 there and in India, (where a class whose occupation 
 was to attend silkworms appears to have existed from 
 time immemorial, being mentioned in the oldest San- 
 scrit books,) one of the chief objects of cultivation 
 and manufacture." Kirby and Spence, vol. 1, page 
 334. 
 
 " The organization in the abdomen of the silk- 
 worm or spider, whereby these insects form their 
 thread, is as incontestably mechanical as a wire- 
 drawer's mill. In the body of the silkworm are two 
 bags, remarkable for their form, position, and use. 
 They wind round the intestine ; when drawn out they 
 are ten inches in length, though the animal itself be 
 
44 NOTES. 
 
 only two. Within these bags, is collected a glue ; 
 and communicating with the bags, are two paps or 
 outlets, perforated, like a grater, by a number of small 
 holes. The glue or gum, being passed through these 
 minute apertures, forms hairs of almost imperceptible 
 fineness ; and these hairs, when joined, compose the 
 silk which we wind off from the cone, in which the 
 silkworm has wrapped itself up; in the spider the 
 web is formed from this thread. In both cases, the 
 extremity of the thread by means of its adhesive qua- 
 lity, is first attached by the animal to some external 
 hold ; and the end being now fastened to a point, the 
 insect, by turning round its body, or by receding 
 from that point, draws out the thread through the 
 holes above described, by an operation, as hath been 
 observed, exactly similar to the drawing of wire. The 
 thread, like the wire, is formed by the hole through 
 which it passes. In one respect there is a difference. 
 The wire is the metal unaltered, except in figure. la 
 the animal process, the, nature of the substance is 
 somewhat changed, as well as the form : for, as k 
 exists within the insect, it is a soft, clammy gum, or 
 glue. The thread acquires, it is probable r its firmness 
 and tenacity from the action of the air upon its sur- 
 face, in the moment of exposure ; and a thread so fine 
 is almost all surface. This property however, of the 
 paste, is part of the contrivance." Paley's Natural 
 Theology. 
 

 NOTES. 45 
 
 G " You imitate man in a certain base trade." 
 
 Before we give our readers the wonderful account 
 of the slave-trade carried on by the ants, (a relation 
 that might seem to degrade this our convocation of 
 Insects to a level with the annals of fairyism,) we must 
 mention those naturalists who have vouched for its 
 truth viz. Kirby and Spence, Huber, and Latreille. 
 Under the shadow of these great names, we fear- 
 lessly proceed to our extraordinary story. 
 
 The red ants, which are never found in England, 
 (a hint that no slave-dealers ought to breathe OUT free 
 air) are accustomed to make war upon the cities of the 
 black ants, for the purpose of procuring slaves to per- 
 form all the business of the society. They do not steal 
 the adults, but carry off the helpless infants, i. e. the 
 larvae and pupse ; and these they educate in their 
 own nests till they are able to work. 
 
 There are two species of ants (viz. Formica ru- 
 fescens and Formica sanguinea,} remarkably expert 
 in the art of making war, and procuring slaves. They 
 generally sally forth upon their expeditions in the 
 afternoon, and previously to marching, they send out 
 scouts to explore the neighbourhood. Upon their 
 return, the body of warriors, issuing from their sub- 
 terranean city, direct their route to the quarter whence 
 the scouts came. They have various preparatory 
 signals, such as pushing each other with the mandibles 
 
46 NOTES. 
 
 or forehead, or touching each other's antennso, or 
 feelers, to excite their martial ardour, give the march- 
 ing signal, or indicate the route they are to take. 
 They have an advanced guard of eight or ten ants, 
 who, as soon as they get beyond the rest, move back, 
 wheel round in a semi- circle, and mix with the main 
 while others succeed to their station. They have, as 
 the great Hebrew Naturalist observes, " no captain, 
 overseer, or ruler^ but all, in turns, take place 
 at the head of the army ; probably for the purpose 
 of communicating intelligence more readily. Thus 
 marching through the grass, when they have proceeded 
 about thirty feet from their own city, they disperse, 
 and like dogs with their noses, explore the ground 
 with their antennse to discover traces of their game. 
 The city of the black ants is soon discovered and 
 attacked : the negroes who are usually keeping guard 
 at their avenues, dart furiously upon the foremost of 
 the assailants ; the alarm is given, and crowds of ne- 
 groes rush from all the apartments. The besiegers 
 fall upon them and compel them to retreat to their 
 lowest story ; great numbers enter with them at the 
 gates; others, with their mandibles, make breaches 
 in the walls, through which the whole victorious army 
 marches into the beseiged city. Each soldier seizes 
 an infant negro, i. e. a pupa or larva, carries it off in 
 its mouth, and by the same passages through which 
 they had entered, the victors, with their prizes, evacu- 
 
NOTES. 47 
 
 ate the city, and by the same route regain their own 
 dominions. We will conclude this account with a 
 relation of a slave expedition, witnessed by Mr. Kirby 
 and M. Latreille, in the Bois de Boulogne near Paris, 
 on the 25th of June, about 1817 or 1818, in the 
 words of the former without abridgement. 
 
 " The day was excessively hot and sultry : a little 
 before five in the afternoo:i we began our search. At 
 first we could not discern a single ant in motion. In 
 a minute or two, however, my friend directed my at- 
 tention to one individual. Two or three more next 
 apppeared : and soon a numerous army was to be 
 seen winding through the long grass of a low ridge, 
 in which was their formicary. Just on the entrance 
 of the wood from Paris, on the right hand and near 
 the road, is a bare place paled in for the Sunday 
 amusement of the lower orders : to this the ants di- 
 rected their march ; and upon entering it, divided 
 into two columns, which traversed it rapidly and with 
 apparent eagerness ; all the while exploring the ground 
 with their antennse as beagles with their noses, evi- 
 dently in pursuit of game. Those in the van, as 
 Huber also observed, kept perpetually falling back 
 into the main body. When they had passed this in- 
 closure, they appeared for some time to be at a loss, 
 making no progress but only coursing about; but 
 after a few minutes delay, as if they had received some 
 intelligence, they resumed their march and soon ar- 
 
48 NOTES, 
 
 rived at a negro nest, which they entered by one or 
 two apertures. We could not observe that any ne- 
 groes were expecting the attack on the outside of the 
 nest, but in a short time a few came out at another 
 opening and appeared to be making their escape. 
 Perhaps some conflict might have taken place within 
 the nest in the interval between the appearance of 
 these negroes and the entry of the assailants. How- 
 ever this might be, in a few minutes one of the latter 
 made its appearance with a pupa in its mouth : it was 
 followed by three or four more ; and soon the whole 
 army began to emerge as fast as it could, almost every 
 individual carrying its burden. Most that I observed 
 seemed to have pupse. I then traced the expedition 
 back to the spot from which I saw them set out, which, 
 according to my steps, was about 1 56 feet from the 
 negro formicary. The whole business was transacted 
 in little more than an hour." 
 
 H " We have lances and darts of a temper so fine." 
 
 The stings of insects, though for a different pur- 
 pose, are, in their structure, not unlike the piercer. 
 The sharpness to which the point in all of them is 
 wrought ; the temper and firmness of the substance of 
 which it is composed : the strength of the muscles by 
 
NOTES. 49 
 
 which it is darted out, compared with the smallness 
 and weakness of the insect, and with the soft and 
 friable texture of the rest of the body ; are properties 
 of the sting to be noticed, and not a little to be ad- 
 mired. The sting of a bee will pierce through a 
 goat-skin glove. It penetrates the human flesh more 
 readily than the finest point of a needle. The action 
 of the sting affords an example of the union of che- 
 mistry and mechanism, such as, if it be not a proof of 
 contrivance, nothing is. First, as to the chemistry ; 
 how highly concentrated must be the venom, which, 
 in so small a quantity, can produce such powerful 
 effects ! And in the bee we may observe, that this 
 venom is made from honey, the only food of the 
 insect, but the last material from which I should have 
 expected, that an exalted poison could, by any pro- 
 cess or digestion whatsoever, have been prepared. 
 In the next place, with respect to the mechanism, the 
 sting is not a simple, but a compound instrument. 
 The visible sting, though drawn to a point exquisitely 
 sharp, is in strictness only a sheath ; for near to the 
 extremity, may be perceived by the microscope two 
 minute orifices, from which orifices, in the act of 
 stinging, and, as it should seem, after the point of the 
 main sting has buried itself in the flesh, are launched 
 out two subtile rays, which may be called the true or 
 proper stings, as being those, through which the 
 poison is infused into the puncture already made by 
 
50 NOTES. 
 
 the exterior sting. I have said that chemistry and 
 mechanism are here united : by which observation I 
 meant, that all this machinery would have been use- 
 less, telum imbelle, if a supply of poison, intense in 
 quality, in proportion to the smallness of the drop, 
 had not been furnished to it by the chemical elabora- 
 tion which was carried on in the insect's body ; and 
 that on the other hand, the poison, the result of this 
 process, could not have attained its effect, or reached 
 its enemy, if, when it was collected at the extremity 
 of the abdomen, it had not found there a machinery, 
 fitted to conduct it to the external situations in which 
 it was to operate, viz. an awl to bore a hole ; and a 
 syringe to inject the fluid. Yet these attributes, 
 though combined in their action, are independent in 
 their origin. The venom does not breed the sting ; 
 nor does the sting concoct the venom," Paley's 
 Natural Theology. 
 
 J " I shall make, for our army, an excellent scout," 8fc. 
 
 In two of the genera of the dragon fly, the wings, 
 even when these insects are at rest, are always expand- 
 ed, so that they can take flight in an instant. They 
 can fly without turning, backwards as well as for- 
 wards, and in all directions. Such is the power of 
 their long wings, and the strength of the muscles that 
 move them, that they are never weary of flying. 
 
NOTES. 51 
 
 J " Should we suffer for science, to had you to find," fyc\ 
 
 If science, which may be simply defined, the 
 knowledge of the works of God, does not lead the 
 human mind to the exercise of those highest intellec- 
 tual feelings, awe of his power admiration of his 
 wisdom and grateful love of his goodness, it can 
 never benefit mankind, but must fatally mislead them. 
 In the pursuit of it, if any act of unkindness and 
 cruelty be committed, against the smallest of those 
 creatures which that omnipotent and incomprehensible 
 Power who calls worlds into existence, has conde- 
 scended to endow with capacities for happiness such 
 an offence against his parental benevolence converts 
 the acquisition of knowledge into a crime : and man 
 traces, examines, and discovers the infinite skill and 
 might of the Creator, by insulting his most glorious 
 attribute, his goodness. I cannot forbear, as not irre- 
 levant to this subject, quoting the opinion of our 
 great English moralist, Dr. Johnson, upon the cruel- 
 ties practised by unfeeling medical professors. 
 
 " The Idlers, that sport only with inanimate 
 nature, may claim some indulgence ; but there are 
 others whom I know not how to mention without more 
 emotion than my love of quiet willingly admits. 
 Among the inferior professors of medical science is a 
 race of wretches, whose lives are only varied by va- 
 rieties of cruelty ; whose favorite amusement is to nail 
 
 F 2 
 
52 NOTES. 
 
 dogs to tables and open them alive, to try how long 
 life may be continued in various degrees of mutila- 
 tion, or with the excision or laceration of the vital 
 parts; to examine whether burning irons are felt 
 more acutely by the bone or tendon ; and whether 
 the more lasting agonies are produced by poison 
 forced into the mouth or injected into the veins. 
 
 " If such cruelties were not practised, it were to 
 be desired that they should not be conceived ; but 
 since they are published every day with ostentation, 
 let me be allowed once to mention them, since I 
 mention them with abhorrence. The anatomical 
 novice tears out the living bowels of an animal and 
 styles himself physician prepares himself by familiar 
 cruelty for that profession which he is to exercise 
 upon feeble bodies and broken minds, and by which 
 he has opportunities to extend his arts of torture, and 
 continue those experiments upon infancy and age 
 which he has hitherto tried upon cats and dogs. 
 What is alleged in defence of these hateful prac- 
 tices every one knows ; but the truth is, that by 
 knives, fire, and poison, knowledge is not always 
 sought, and is very seldom attained. The experiments 
 that have been tried are tried again he that burned 
 an animal with irons yesterday, will be willing to 
 amuse himself with burning another to-morrow. I 
 know not, that by living dissections any discovery 
 has been made by which a malady is more easily 
 
NOTES. 53 
 
 cured. And if the knowledge of physiology has been 
 somewhat increased, he surely buys knowledge dear, 
 who learns the use of the lacteals at theexpence of his 
 humanity. It is time that universal resentment should 
 rise against these horrid operations, which tend to 
 harden the heart, extinguish those sensations which 
 give man confidence in man, and tend to make the 
 physician more dreadful than the gout or stone." 
 Idler, JVo. IT, 1758. 
 
 K *' And the curl of a leaf is our shelter and hornet 
 
 We little imagine, when tempted to crush with 
 our fingers the grubs on our rose-trees, what wonder- 
 ful dexterity and labor the poor insect has displayed 
 in forming his fairy house. Those tinese, which feed 
 on the leaves of the rose tree, apple, elm, and oak, 
 on the under side of which, in summer, they may often 
 be found,, form a long cavity in the interior of the leaf, 
 by eating away the inside, and having detached the 
 upper and under side, they join them with silk so art- 
 fully that the seams are scarcely discernible, even 
 with glasses. Thus they make a hollow case, round 
 at the top and triangular at the bottom. The different 
 shape of the two ends, renders it necessary that each 
 should have a diiferent curvature; and Reaumur 
 affirms that these are as difficult to fit as the shapings 
 of the back of a coat. Kirby observed some of 
 
54 NOTES. 
 
 tribe upon the alders in the Hull Botanic Garden, 
 who are still more ingenious than their brethren. To 
 save the labour of sewing up two seams in their 
 dwelling, they insinuate themselves into a leaf near 
 the edge instead of the middle. Here they form 
 their excavation between the two surfaces of the leaf, 
 which they leave joined at the edge, and forming one 
 seam of the case ; the opposite side they are neces- 
 sarily forced to cut and sew up, but even in this ope- 
 ration they shew an ingenuity and contrivance worthy 
 of admiration. Those tinese which cut out their case 
 from the middle of the leaf, wholly detach the two 
 surfaces that compose it before they proceed to join 
 them together, the serrated incisions made by their 
 teeth, (which, if they do not cut as fast, are more 
 effective than any scissors) interlacing each other, so 
 as to support the separated portions till they are pro- 
 perly joined. But, if those Tineee who cut out their 
 house from the edge of the leaf were to detach the 
 inner side before they had joined the two pieces to- 
 gether, the builder as well as his dwelling would 
 inevitably fall. They, therefore, before making any 
 incision, prudently run (as a sempstress would call 
 it) loosely together, in distant points, the two mem- 
 branes on that side. Then, putting out their heads, 
 they cut the intermediate portions, carefully avoiding 
 the larger nerves of the leaf, and sew up the detached 
 sides more closely. 
 
ROMAN 
 
 AND 
 
 ENGLISH PASTIMES. 
 
 LOVER of Taste 1 whose musing footsteps 
 
 tread 
 
 That CITY'S dust, which is not but has been; 
 And, the world's diadem around her head, 
 
 Once, from her throne, exclaimed " / sit a 
 Queen :" 
 
 Hast thou not, rapt in visions of the past, 
 
 CalPd up the pageants of her glorious time j 
 
 And, in her mighty COLISEUM'S waste, 
 
 Felt magic musings, solemn, sad, sublime ? 
 
56 ROMAN AND 
 
 And stretch 'd upon the grassy floor, alone, 
 
 In evening's gloom, while perhaps the moon- 
 beams bright, 
 
 Gilt, shattered, here and there a topmost stone, 
 And every hollow arch below was night ; 
 
 Seen, in thy memory's eye phantasmaa dread, 
 
 People, in shadowy pomp, the ruin'd dome, 
 And show, in vivid, faithful colors spread, 
 
 The sports and pastimes of IMPERIAL 
 
 ROME I- 
 Issuing from subterranean dens beneath, 
 
 The slaves lead forth whole troops of beasts 
 
 to light ; A 
 Bears, tigers, lions, rage and slaughter breathe, 
 
 And, tam'd to slay,, engage in furious fight. 
 
 Next, human ghosts advance a bleeding band ! 
 
 Devoted slaves, prepared by studious skill, 
 To feast the great and vulgar of the land, 
 
 With finest practice of the art to kilh 
 
ENGLISH PASTIMES. 57 
 
 Intrepid victims ! Stoics by constraint ! B 
 That hand, which wrought your spirit out 
 of stone, 
 
 Till time's no more, to pity's eye shall paint 
 The DYING GLADIATOR'S stifled groan! 
 
 And, where the vast arcades, in triple tier, 
 
 Rival Rome's seven fam'd hills, in haughty 
 height 
 
 From slave to emperor, see a nation here ! 
 The charm'd spectators of the ghastly sight ! 
 
 While splendid awnings shade the burning ray, 
 And show'rs of fragrance cool the panting 
 breath, 
 
 To give luxurious relish to the play 
 
 Of strife and blood, of agony and death ! 
 
 He that has mus'd all this, with honest rage 
 Has thus exclaim'd " O Rome ! imperial 
 Queen ! 
 
58 ROMAN AND 
 
 Could 'st thou wise, learn'd, the glory of thy age, 
 Enjoy and revel in the savage scene? 
 
 Thou could'st for not to thee was then pro- 
 claim'd, 
 
 By Heralds from on high, 'good-will to man ;' 
 Thy bold and rugged nature was not tam'd 
 
 By the soft mercies of the Gospel plan. 
 
 Thy faith was folly, and thy rites were shame, 
 Thy Gods were men, less worthy far than 
 brutes ; 
 
 Some pity then thy savage soul may claim, 
 For such religion well such custom suits." 
 
 Thus Rome is pardon'd but, my Country ! 
 say 
 
 Who can for ikee, one faint excuse avow ? 
 Thy heathen pastimes make a night of day, 
 
 And Christian Britain is the Pagan now ! 
 
ENGLISH PASTIMES. 59 
 
 BRITAIN, the blest of heav'n ! o'er whose rich 
 state 
 
 The civil arts their countless blessings show'r; 
 In moral science, greatest of the great 
 
 Renown'd for wisdom, elegance, and pow'r : 
 
 In pure Religion grac'd above the rest, 
 
 With Truth's full knowledge like a cloudless 
 
 day; 
 
 With hosts of zealous, faithful pastors blest, 
 Wise, learn'd, and good, to teach SALVA- 
 TION'S way. 
 
 And, in thy love to man, with zeal profound, 
 (Grateful, as might be hop'd, for grace so 
 high,) 
 
 Sending the Heralds of the Gospel round, 
 To ev'ry distant coast beneath the sky ! 
 
 While thus abroad thou wear'st the shining 
 
 robe 
 Of lovely Charity and Faith divine, 
 
60 ROMAN AND 
 
 As 'twere thy joy to humanize the Globe 
 Behold ! at home, what brutal crimes are 
 thine ! 
 
 See thy green vales by savage sports disgrae'd, 
 Which e'en the Hottentot would blush to own ! 
 
 Man mangling man ! life on a wager plac'd ! 
 A spectacle for demons' eyes alone ! 
 
 Infatuate land ! from thee the gentle grace 
 Of soft Humanity, alarm'd, departs : 
 
 Blind in the mid-day SUN ! 'mid GLORY base ! 
 And brutified amid the tasteful ARTS ! 
 
 Nor this enough but must thou, too, engage 
 The nobler, wiser brutes to learn of thee 
 
 To rend each other with excited rage, 
 
 That crowds may gaze and shout with maniac 
 glee ! 
 
 And having tam'd the monarch of the wood, D 
 Caress'd and fed and in his gen'rous heart 
 
ENGLISH PASTIMES. 61 
 
 Rais'd kind attachment then to drink his 
 
 blood ! 
 Feast on his tortures ! 'tis a traitor's part ! 
 
 ThrilFd not thy breast with one sharp pang within, 
 When with superior virtue, kind as brave, 
 
 The noble-minded beast rebuked thy sin, 
 
 And those, by thee devoted, sought to save ? 
 
 Oh Britain ! rouse thee, lest this dread abuse 
 Of light and mercy, benefits and love, 
 
 Provoke ETERNAL JUSTICE to let loose 
 Some fearful visitation from above ! 
 
 Call on thy Senate ! wake thy slumbering laws ! 
 
 Redeem thy name ! and show thou still can'st 
 
 feel ! 
 Protect the race of brutes, support their cause ! 
 
 A cause well worthy of the Patriot's zeal. 
 
 Tho' bold the Muse ye gen'rous and humane, 
 Misjudge not upright sympathy as wrong ; 
 
62 ROMAN AND 
 
 For humble tho' it be, this honest strain 
 
 But gives a voice to those who have no tongue. 
 
 The noble Horse, his life of service past, 
 In travel, labor, or in battle brave, 
 
 Left in the Nagger's E den to die at last, 
 Petitions British gratitude to save ! 
 
 The patient Ox the Sheep (blest gifts of 
 heav'n !) 
 
 As bleeding in the mart, they gasp for breath, 
 Their lives for man's support and comfort giv'n, 
 
 Beseech that boon of justice, easy death. 
 
 F The noble Cock his race, a general good 
 To all mankind, in ev'ry age and clime, 
 
 Asks why his courage rous'd to deeds of blood, 
 Must slay his fellows 1 harden man in 
 crime ? 
 
 The gentle Pigeon, trembling, seems to ask 
 Why reasoning beings of the human race, 
 
ENGLISH PASTIMES. 63 
 
 With keen delight pursue the rival task, 
 
 To crowd most deathe, within a given space. 
 
 Oh ! hear their voice ! unite to grant their pray V, 
 Ye wise ! ye good ! ye powerful ! and ye 
 
 great ! 
 
 Love you your country ? is her weal your care ? 
 Then save her MORALS and you save her 
 STATE. 
 
 Arise ! brave Britain ! not the world in arms 
 Can shake thine hand, or cause thine heart 
 to quail j 
 
 But there's a foe, tho' view'd without alarms, 
 Of mightier danger walks thy own green vale. 
 
 Then rouse thy valour for a nobler fight ! 
 Unsheath thy conquering sword of richest 
 
 price, 
 Temper'd and tried and with true English might, 
 
 Point the sure weapon at DOMESTIC VICE ! 
 
 G 2 
 
NOTES TO " ROMAN AND 
 ENGLISH PASTIMES." 
 
 A " The slaves lead forth whole troops of beasts to light." 
 
 Titus Vespasian, who treated his people with one 
 of these splendid festivals of death, in one day exhi- 
 bited, in combat, 5,000 wild beasts of various kinds. 
 Pinarolo, Antichita di Roma. vol. 1, p. 109. 
 
 Julius Csesar, in his Edileship, amused the peo- 
 ple with 320 pair of Gladiators: and Trajan, in a 
 show that lasted 123 days, brought out 1,000 pair. 
 
 These horrible games, which arose from the 
 ancient custom of immolating human victims at funeral 
 rites, and were first given at Rome by Marcus and 
 Decimus Brutus on the death of their father, A. U. C. 
 490, began to be abolished by Constantine, and 
 
KO i 65 
 
 were entirely banished by Thcodoric king- of the Os- 
 trogoths, A. D. 500. 
 
 B u Intrepid victims ! Stoics by constraint!" 
 
 The master of the Gladiators, before they began 
 combat, exacted from them an oath that they would 
 fight to death, and if they failed they were put to 
 death either by fire, sword, clubs, or whips. It was 
 a crime to complain if wounded, to ask for death, or 
 to avoid it if conquered. But when they gave no sign 
 of fear, and awaited the fatal stroke with intrepidity, 
 it was usual for the Emperor to grant their life. 
 
 The dying Gladiator, that valuable monument of 
 ancient sculpture, was, with the Laocoon, carried to 
 Paris in 1796. 
 
 c " From Slave to Emperor > see a nation here." 
 
 There were in this vast amphitheatre, as the pre- 
 sent ruins plainly show, three circles of seats, the 
 highest for the Senators, the middle for the Equites, 
 
 c 3 
 
66 NOTES. 
 
 and the lowest for the Plebeians. According to Pin- 
 arolo, these seats would accommodate 85,000 per- 
 sons. 
 
 D " And having tamed the monarch of the wood." 
 
 A public exhibition of a fight between a lion 
 named Nero and six dogs, was witnessed by crowds 
 of spectators, in a field near Warwick, July 26, 1825. 
 The following striking circumstance is taken from 
 Bell's Weekly Messenger of that time : " At the 
 first rush of the dogs, which the lion evidently had 
 not expected, and did not at all know how to meet, 
 they all fixed themselves upon him, but caught only 
 by the dewlap and mane. With a single effort he 
 shook them off, without attempting to return the 
 attack. He then flew from side to side of the cage, 
 endeavouring to get away ; but in the next moment 
 the assailants were on him again, and the brown dog, 
 Turk, seized him by the nose, while the two others 
 astened at the same time on the fleshy part of his lips 
 and under jaw. The lion then roared dreadfully, but 
 evidently only from the pain he suffered, not at all 
 from anger. As the dogs hung to his throat and 
 head, he pawed them off by sheer strength; and in 
 
NOTES. 67 
 
 doing this and rolling upon them, did them consider- 
 able mischief, but it amounts to a most curious fact, 
 that he never once bit, or attempted to bite, during 
 the whole contest, or seemed to have any desire to 
 retaliate any of the punishment that was inflicted on 
 him. 
 
 E " Left in the Nagger's den to die at last." 
 
 The Naggers (in London) are people who pur- 
 chase worn-out horses, for the purpose of selling them 
 as dog's-meat. They are not at the expence of feeding 
 them ; and the helpless animals are thus left confined 
 in a close place, till some purchaser applies for food 
 for his dogs, or famine puts an end to their lingering 
 sufferings. 
 
 F " The nolle cock his race, a general good," fyc. 
 
 " Man is that link of the chain of universal exis- 
 tence, by which spiritual and corporeal beings are 
 united : as the numbers and variety of the latter his 
 inferiors are almost infinite, so probably are those of 
 
68 
 
 the former his superiors ; and as we see that the lives 
 and happiness of those below us are dependent on our 
 wills, we may reasonably conclude that our lives and 
 happiness are equally dependent on the wills of those 
 above us : accountable, like ourselves, for the use of 
 this power, to the Supreme Creator, and Governor of 
 all things. Should this analogy be well founded, 
 how criminal will our account appear when laid 
 before that just and impartial Judge ! How will man, 
 that sanguinary tyrant, be able to excuse himself from 
 the charge of those innumerable cruelties inflicted on 
 his unoffending subjects committed to his care, formed. 
 foF his benefit, and placed under his authority by 
 their common Father ? whose mercy is over all his 
 works, and who expects that this authority should be 
 exercised not only with tenderness and mercy, but in 
 conformity to the laws of justice and gratitude. 
 
 " What name should we bestow on a superior 
 being, whose whole endeavors were employed, and 
 whose whole pleasure consisted in terrifying, en- 
 snaring, tormenting, and destroying mankind ? whose 
 superior faculties were exerted in fomenting animosities 
 amongst them, in contriving engines of destruction, 
 and inciting them to use them in maiming and mur- 
 dering each other ? whose power over them was em- 
 ployed in assisting the rapacious, deceiving the simple, 
 and oppressing the innocent ? who, without provoca 
 tion or advantage, should continue from day to day 
 
NOTES. 69 
 
 void of all pity and remorse, thus to torment mankind 
 for diversion, and at the same time endeavor with 
 their utmost care to preserve their lives, in order to 
 increase the number of victims devoted to his male- 
 volence, and be delighted in proportion to the miseries 
 which he occasioned ? I say, what name detestable 
 enough could we find for such a being ? Yet, if we 
 impartially consider the case, and our intermediate 
 situation, we- must acknowledge that, with regard to 
 inferior animals, just such a being is a sportsman" 
 Soame Jcnyns. 
 
THE CARRIER-PIGEON'S 
 LAMENTATION. 
 
 Several of these birds were despatched from Bi- 
 shop's Wood y Staffordshire, April 8M, 1828, 
 to various parts of the kingdom, with letters 
 conveying intelligence of the prize-Jig ht be- 
 tween the pugilists Sampson and Brown*, for 
 500 Sovereigns* 
 
 FORBEAR ! no more with fatal tale 
 Of games of blood in Albion's vale, 
 Pollute my spotless wing ! 
 The vulture or the harpy ohuse 
 For they, such brutifying news, 
 Without disgrace might bring. 
 
THE CARRIER-PIGEON'S LAMENTATION. 71 
 
 Shall I, who in that awful day, 
 
 When man's whole race was swept away, 
 
 The joyful tidings bore 
 To the blest Patriarch on the tide, 
 That MERCY bade the flood subside, 
 
 And earth to bloom once more ; - 
 
 Shall I be sent from shore to shore, 
 Conveying laurels dy'd in gore, 
 
 The wrestler's brows to crown ? 
 While mad with joy the " rabble rout" 
 Exulting sounds of victory shout, 
 
 And call disgrace renown. 
 
 Oh ! hear my moan of shame and grief !- 
 And give me back my olive leaf ! 
 
 Or distant let me flee 
 To some good land, in gentler skies, 
 Whose dwellers, though as serpents wise, 
 
 Are harmless, meek, like me ! 
 
72 THE CARJUER-PIGEON'S LAMENTATION. 
 
 There, shall I keep my ancient fame, 
 (Far from the cruel sportsman's aim),* 
 
 There, games of death shall cease ; 
 And I be still the faithful Dove, 
 Symbol of innocence and love, 
 
 And Messenger of Peace. 
 
 * The Pigeon Shooter. 
 
 dftntg. 
 
 Printed by A. Cockshaw, Leicester.