CLEANLINESS OF THE SPIDER.

291

materials for a work published in 1797, on Arachnology, or the art of interpreting weather from the webs and motions of the spider race; while in times more recent, una bella ragna," on his dungeon wall, became the pet of Silvio Pellico. The above and like instances are worth considering. If we wonder how the web of a spider can hang secure, supporting its own weight and that of its occupant on a single line, with no other point of attachment but the bare surface of a wall, must we not infinitely more admire how the heart of man can cling for support to objects most trifling, uncongenial, and repulsive? So let us not deem anything in creation without its moral as well as natural use, seeing that even a spider's thread (to speak figuratively) has been strengthened into a tough cable, helping to preserve from utter shipwreck the mind of a poor prisoner when tossing on that sapping ocean of solitude, which has engulfed some in inanition or in madness.

To return to the virtues of Arachne, we shall close our list of her recommendable qualities by that of cleanliness, wherein she rivals even her direst enemy of the broom, even the worthiest descendant of such assiduous maidens as were wont, in the days of Faëry, to receive ever and anon a silver recompense in the shape of "a sixpence in their shoe." As such a maiden, with her carpet and her curtains, for ever sweeping and shaking, and thereto adding the personal propriety of never failing to "clean herself" when her work is over, so does the domestic spinner with her web, shaking it and

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THE SPIDER'S SIGHT.

dusting it, then smoothing down her person, and combing her hairy legs, till no unseemly particle is left to disfigure her attire or abode. In 'Insect Architecture' is given an amusing description of the laborious industry of a spider passenger on board a steamer, in clearing her geometric web of flakes of soot adhering to it from the smoke of the engine, and rendering it unfit for use. Whenever practicable, she stripped from her lines each sooty particle, and when clogged past clearance, detached, bundled them up, threw them away, and supplied their place by new-spun threads.

To suppose for a moment that a creature so watchful, so ingenious, so acccurate, so tidy, as the one we have been considering, should be blind, seems one of the most curious of speculative notions, yet has it really been conjectured that the web-making artificers of the spider race perform all their operations of surpassing nicety, through the nicety, as surpassing, of their touch and hearing. Those who have thus imagined spiders to be destitute of sight, would seem to have so conjectured contrary to the evidence of their own; seeing, as is plainly to be seen, that a number of sparkling gem-like points, if not eyes, exactly resembling in appearance the ocelli of other insects, stud the head or fore part of our spinning Arachnes. These are most often eight, sometimes six in number, varied in colour from black to the clear transparent hue of a sapphire, and are placed in different situations admirably adapted to the habits of each tribe. This provision of Nature

THE HARVEST-SPIDER.

293

is remarkably exemplified in those curious, well-known spiders with short roundish bodies elevated on stilt-like legs, which are seen to people in abundance every field of stubble, and are thence called Harvest-men.* These, having no eyes in front, have their one pair on the back, inserted vertically in the sides of an elevated horn or tubercle, so as to afford the animal, in its lowly position on the ground, the benefit of an extended range of vision.

In addition to perseverance and neatness, the spider numbers, as we have seen, amongst her more pleasing attributes a large amount of ingenuity; but we do not enlarge here either on its mode of exercise or the works of constructive skill by which it is exemplified, these having formed subjects more or less direct of former essays. We have done our best to rescue the hairy-legged spinner from unmerited dislike, but withal we leave her, we dare say, much as we found her,—a very unpopular, ugly little animal. Even with reference to externals, it is certain, however, that she is looked on often with an eye of prejudice. As for our domestic Arachne, she, poor creature, as if conscious of her own unsightliness, lurks in shadowy corners, and hides her grim features behind her woven veil. She is certainly not prepossessing; but wherefore, with her, condemn as ugly her out-door cousins, which, warmed by the sunshine into beauty, at least of colour, display a gaiety of hue and variety of markings, such as make up in a measure

* Phalangium.

294

A SPIDER'S LEAF-NEST.

for ungraceful form? There is a beautiful out-door species (white, with zigzag stripes of crimson) which affords, with its nest, an object among the most curious and pleasing of those produced by insect appropriation of leaves. The collection of such foliaceous specimens affords of itself a pleasant pursuit in country rambles. In such pursuit we have often, in July and August, lighted on a leaf (usually of bramble or nettle) with the tip and sides so turned over from the outer surface as to form a perfect triangle, the edges being joined, and all interstices filled up by white silk, which also lines this ingeniouslywrought purse. The purse it is wherein lies hidden the treasured egg of a maternal spider, and enclosed within is also to be found the spider's self. A brooding bird will desert her disturbed nest, but it is not so with this watching spider. When her fabric is shaken, and even rent partially asunder, she yet keeps guard within, and still maintains it when captured with her nursery, in order to test the duration of her patient care. That has always held out longer than our resolution to detain her, for day after day, even to a week's end, have we found this spider sit, foodless, by her charge, her ferocity abandoned, her industry suspended, her sagacity all directed, not to destroy, only to preserve; for these triangular leaf-nests never seem employed as snares, and never have we detected the purity of their interiors defiled by vestiges of slaughter. This pretty insect in her gentle employ, is undoubtedly a pretty object; but well-favoured or ill-favoured,

REGENERATE CREATION.

295

bent on ill or employed on good, it is all the same, she is one of the race of spiders, and there is no bespeaking favour

for them, they are still artful, cruel creatures, even, as we most close and unpleasing resemblances So we must go on hating spiders to the

began by observing,

of our worst selves.

end, not to the end of time, but only to the beginning of that happy period when man shall cease to ensnare and prey on man, and to feast off lamb and mutton; and when, grown gentle with all others of regenerate creation, the spider herself, no longer the ferocious huntress or the sly filandière,

"Prétendant enlacer tout insect volant,"

shall become again the harmless tapissière she was supposed formerly (doubtless, when she lived in Eden) to have been.