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SPECULATIVE FANCIES.

shall venture to imagine the astounding marvels on which his eyes would open at the beginning of the twentieth? Marvels, vastly curious and amusing in the speculative distance, but of which the close reality might be attended by various sensations something less agreeable. The old-fashioned courtier would feel awkward enough in the position we have just supposed amongst his modern brethren of the suite; but how infinitely more so one of these latter under circumstances wherein the lapse of another half-century might place him, when called on, perhaps, to attend his sovereign-if sovereigns there be, or if sovereigns then have lords in waiting-in a state balloon!

Still worse might it fare with the present great heads of law, physic, and divinity, who, on re-opening their eyes in the year 1900, might each, peradventure, find his "occupation gone "the lawyer, in the march of Christianity; the doctor, in the march of mesmerism; the church dignitary, in the march of simple gospel truth.

But disagreeables like these would be but trifles compared with the serious perils to which a life-spinner, such as we have pictured, would be exposed during his state of voluntary torpor. To preserve him from accidents by flood, fire, and steel, he might prepare himself, beforehand, a temporary tomb of refuge, wherein he might depend, possibly, on being well secured. But who could he rely on to revoke his soporific spell at the end of its desired period? Hardly the heirs of his property, or its stewards; or even, if, on composing himself for his pur

THE SUM OF THE MATTER.

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posed nap of a half-century, this individual had left in wakefulness a disinterested descendant or a fast-enduring friend, that rara avis might either be, in the course of nature, dead, or choosing, like himself, to deviate from her beaten track, have repaired, like a sand-marten or a great goat caterpillar, to his own dormitory, and be, therefore, out of the way when his liberating services were required. On the whole, then, and in sober earnest, we must needs arrive at the conclusion that, with the allotted period of our lives, and their present constitution, as with all other things under the guidance of Infinite Wisdom, whatever is, is best. Above all, let us remember, that, even as it is, we are permitted, in one important sense, to hold in our hands the extension or curtailment of our allotted span. Within a brief space, we may live much,within a long one, oh! how little!

The threads of Inseck Like are variously apportioned.

BESIDES almost every other object in the world, its various luminaries, both natural and moral, find their representatives and symbols in the insect creation. The fixed, or as it appears to our childish and, what is nearly the same thing, our unreflective view, the little twinkling star, is emulated by the

modest radiance of the glowworm; the planetary bodies, for ever wheeling in their orbits, are better represented by the restless fire-fly; whilst the streaming meteor and blazing comet find their prototypes in the brilliant Fulgora, or Lantern-carriers, as described shooting in eccentric courses across the gloom of tropic skies.

Then, for the luminaries of the world considered morally, we shall be at no loss to find symbolic parallels in the varied qualities, habits, and localities of luminous insects. Our little English glowworm, as she glimmers on her mossy bank, how well, to borrow the words of a late lamented poet,* does she serve to represent those quiet Christian spirits, who

"in humble trust

Shine meekly 'mid their native dust,

The glowworms of the earth!"

And if, as opposed to these modest "lights," we desire correspondents for the "stars" of the world, we may scarcely find more apt ones than in the great lantern-flies, the radiant uproarious night-singers, the scare-sleeps of Guiana, bearing aloft their fiery flambeaux, like torches of noisy revellers, and grating on the "ear of night" by the harsh music of their loud discordant cymbals.

The attention of philosophers was in very early ages directed to various phenomena resulting from the properties of light, and, amongst others, the remarkable phosphoric appearances

*Wordsworth.

of certain animal and vegetable bodies.

Ancient writers allude in general terms to the existence of luminous insects, of which the species most early known is supposed to be the Linnæan Lampyrides, or flying glowworms, abundant in the south of Europe, as well as in Asia and some parts of Africa. The Greeks included all shining insects under the name Lampyris, and the Latins called them Cicindela, Noctiluca, and Luciola, under which latter designation the flying glowworms are still (as we have seen) known in Italy.

With the Fulgoræ, or lantern-flies, the ancients are thought to have had no acquaintance, for, though Asia produces a few species of them, the most remarkable are peculiar to the warmest parts of America. These singular insects are supposed, indeed, to have been quite unknown in Europe till the latter end of the 17th century, when Madame Merian, in her beautifully illustrated work on the Insects of Surinam, and Dr. Grew, published histories and figures of the lantern-carriers, which, by the sceptical of their time, were esteemed fictitious; and strange to say, often as they have been since described, figured, and said to have been seen by travellers, their most remarkable property, that of emitting light, would seem, even now, a matter of doubt, at all events of disputation.

This appears to have arisen from their luminosity having escaped the notice of various recent observers; but as that of the glowworm and the fire-fly is not always visible, this proves