By Way of an Introduction. 15 



make the whole trip, I shall try to take as cheerful a view 

 of life as is possible when you consider that in all the 

 insect world we find not one single friend. Some insects 

 like us, that is, like the taste of us, and some even become 

 attached to us, but it is invariably the kind of attachment 

 we are anxious to sever immediately. Some of them are 

 fond of being where we are, but in every case it is " cup- 

 board love' and no more. They are with us for what 

 they can get from us. The bee is a beneficial insect 

 because we rob its storehouse in such wise as really to 

 benefit the race of bees, 1 ut man is always an alien. The 

 silkworm is profitable after much the same fashion, but 

 when these two are named the story of man's insect 

 friends becomes very much like that of Jack a-Xory and 

 his brother. If any other six-leg is worth cu'tivating it 

 is because it kills off other six-legs, and not because it is 

 a lovable character in itself. 



And yet, for all that, they are an interesting lot of folks. 

 There is a pile of sense in them not exact 1 }- our kind of 

 sense perhaps, but the kind they need, and in sufficient 

 quantity. Some of them, I should think, have quite as 

 much gumption as but what's the use of going into 

 personalities? There is even a lot of human nature in 

 them, which is not so surprising as you might think, see- 

 ing that we are all cut off the same bolt of goods, that is to 

 say, Protoplasm. 



