136 The Book of Bugs. 



speaking. You drop in some day say about twenty 

 thousand years from now and you will be surprised at 

 the progress he has made. 



The fact of the matter is that Nature is all business. 

 Her advice to everybody is, " Get there," and if she has 

 time to spare, she may add, 4; It doesn't make any differ- 

 ence how, so long as you get there." All this peaceful 

 scene that we admire so mornings when it doesn't rain, 

 and we have plenty of time to get to the station, is one 

 grand riot of murder and lust. The reason why we think 

 murder and lust are horrible is because we are trying to 

 quit being beasts and are trying to become gods. It is 

 a terribly discouraging undertaking, and sometimes we 

 get out of all conceit with our kind when we see how 

 other people behave, but, all things considered, I think 

 we do pretty well. I suppose that as fair a sample as 

 any in the world of ' get there ' is the spider. It has 

 even received a favorable notice in the Bible, which is as 

 much as any enterprising person could expect to attain 

 to; though, as usual, the extreme flexibility of " the origi- 

 nal Hebrew " is such that the word " spider " may as well 

 as not be interpreted ' lizard," in the text: ' The spider 

 taketh hold with her hands and is in kings' palaces.' 



Being so remarkable a creature it is hardly fair to leave 

 it out of this book, though it is not an insect at alf, not 

 being cut (sect) in (/;/) at the waist. The spider is, 

 strictly speaking, about halfway between bugs and lob- 

 sters. It has eight legs instead of the insect's six. It 

 shows no sign of ever having had wings. It has stick- 

 ing-plaster feet like the fly. It breathes through slits in 

 its body, but the arrangement for aerating the blood is 

 different from that in insects. It is a contrivance some- 

 thing between the gills of a fish and the lungs of a man, 

 and yet not like either. The heart, when it beats, 



