198

MORAL OF INSECT MOVEMENTS.

generation as these, the children of instinct, and whether it be not time with each of us to begin our preparations for that winter which, on earth, is followed by no spring.

And from our late cursory review of insect movements there also suggests itself, without straining at a moral, a something of individual application in the inquiry as to which among them may represent most aptly our mode of progress or position.

Are we like the giddy whirlwig, idly gyrating in the sun of pleasure? or, as quaintly expressed by a courtly moralist,* sick, at least for a season, of courtly vanities, are we "daily following of vain pursuits, and so, lyke to a mill-horse treddinge alwaies in the same steppes, ever as far from a worthy and wise man as the circle from the centre ?"

Or, as opposed to the worldly giddy, are we of the worldly cunning, ever on the watch, like the wily ant-lion, to arrest for our own benefit the progress of others, while we ourselves unconsciously walk backwards? If we are pursuing a straightforward path, is it, with the "arrowy flight" of the bee, a course of industry and innocence, or, with the headlong march or flight of the locust, one of reckless mischief?

The lightning's path; and straight the fearful course

Of cannon-ball. Direct it flies and rapid,

Shattering that it may reach, and shattering
What it reaches."

* Sir J. Harrington: Nuga Antiquæ.'

EMBLEMS OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

199

Is such course ours? or is it that gently winding path which follows the curve of moral beauty? Do we remember that

"The road the human being travels,

That on which blessing comes and goes, doth follow

The river's course, the valley's playful windings,
Curves round the cornfields and the hill of vines,
Honouring the holy bounds of property ?"*

If such our course, and every step be taken in confident but humble reliance on Him who directs alike the movements of myriads of insects and myriads of worlds, and guides (though with no such absolute rule) the movements of mind, we may stumble, but we shall not fall.

Should it even appear that, sharing, in a moral sense, the legendary doom of a certain family of Tracies,† we have always to encounter the wind in our faces, He who has endowed the frail wing of the butterfly with power to support her against a current of air, and the slender limbs of the diminutive Velia with power to glide against a current of water, will not afford less help to us in battling the adverse elements of life.

He who has given to the fly the admirable gift of walking against gravity has provided us with fitting aids for the ascension of steeps and acclivities so slippery and perpendicular as

* Coleridge.

+ Descendants of one of the knights who killed Thomas à Becket, upon whom, for the crime of their ancestor, this miraculous penance was said to have been imposed, whether going by land or water.-FULLER.

200

INSTINCTIVE DIRECTION.

to offer, seemingly, no footing for our steps. And, however lowly our position, however often we may have struggled vainly to get onwards, and have sickened with hopelessness at want of means, let us look at the upward movements of the legless, wingless chrysalis, and find therein a symbol of encouragement. Or let us contrast the wondrous leaps of an insect grub, destitute, to all appearance, of every requisite for active motion, with the dormant inactivity of certain butterflies and moths, which, possessing ample wings, never use, seem scarcely conscious of possessing them, and we shall herein read, in emblematic language, that it is not to external appliances, but to inward energy, power, and will (used always with reference to their Almighty Giver), that we owe most chiefly our progress and our place.

We often see such obvious marks of Divine guidance in the movements of animals, that there are times (times of trial, and doubt, and despondency) when one could almost envy the lowest among them for their entire and necessary dependence on their Fatherly Creator. Passing after a tempestuous night through an avenue of lofty elms, we may notice on their rugged trunks a multitude of caterpillars* progressing slowly upwards, in order to regain the leafy pastures from which the wind has shaken them. What, when thrown upon the ground, free, seemingly, to wander in any direction, has thus impelled them to converge, with one accord, towards their native tree, and

*Those of the Elm Saw-fly are often thus seen.

MAN'S UNERRING GUIDE.

201

remount its toilsome perpendicular? What but the unerring instinct which points out to them the only path towards recovery of their green elysium?

We, perhaps, have been hurled from some elevation as proud, and plentiful, and happy. A way may exist of regaining our lost position, a way there certainly is for the attainment of one far more exalted. But what shall lead us up the difficult ascent? Seems not the worm to possess a better guide than we? It would, assuredly, if it were not our privilege to invoke the aid of Reason's Source and Instinct's Giver, who will lead us surely, not perhaps to the recovery of our transitory Eden, but to the peaceful paradise where storms never rise, where movements never clash, and where every step is a step of progression without hindrance and without end.

In the swift Tiger and creeping Vil Beckles
see the fabled Hare and Torkøise.

FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT OVER-NICE.

"With ho! such bugs and goblins in my life."

Now that insects abroad are become comparatively few, it may be as well to notice several of the race which are much too intimately connected with home to be entirely overlooked, though not certainly the most pleasing objects of contemplation.

We shall try, however, in the treatment of our uninviting subject, to handle it as lightly and as slightly as we can, and reverse in our treatment of it the practice of Flemish painters