AS REGARDS SPIDERS. 683 



spider contributes its share to the general weal. What would this 

 world come to, if the flies could have their own way in it without let 

 or hindrance ? Killing flies is a necessary and righteous thing, and, 

 as it is jointly undertaken by men, women, and spiders, for purposes 

 of common beneficence, each should have an alicpiot share of the honor. 

 The spicier, as we have seen, is also courageous and soldierly. He is 

 fond of war, and, having taken a position, is very apt to " fight it out 

 on that line," or system of lines, till crowned with victory. But it in- 

 vests war with no sentiment of " glory," does not dress it up with gilt 

 and feathers, nor use its passions as political stock-in-trade. Sundry 

 misanthropes have claimed for the spicier a standard of virtue higher 

 than the human, as witness the following effusion : 



" Ingenious insect, but of ruthless mould, 



"Whose savage craft, as Nature taught, designs 



A mazy web of death the filmy lines 

 That form thy circling labyrinth enfold 

 Each thoughtless fly that wanders near thy hold, 



Sad victim of thy guile; nor aught avail 



His silken wings, nor coat of glossy mail, 

 For varying lines of azure, jet, or gold ; 

 Yet though thus ill the fluttering captive fares, 



"Whom heedless of the fraud thy toils trepan ; 

 Thy tyrant fang that slays the stranger, spares 



The bloody brothers of thy cruel clan ; 

 While man against his fellows spreads his snares, 



Then most delighted when his prey is many 



This is tolerable poetry, but very poor science. Truth compels us 

 to drag the spicier down to the human level it does kill its own kind. 

 Had it not been for this habit, men would have long ago enslaved the 

 spiders to the silk-business. It is again charged that the spider is a 

 cannibal, and, having killed bis fellow-citizens, proceeds to devour 

 them. But here, again, the spider can claim no originality, and is but 

 an humble imitator of the lords of creation. It has, moreover, been 

 accused of practising murder under very delicate circumstances, when 

 its mind should only be occupied with tender feelings. It is true that 

 love and courtship in the Arachnidian world are apt to be tragical. 

 These creatures are quite too literal in their construction of the phrases, 

 " You will kill me with your coldness," " Love me or I die ; " but, in a 

 higher sphere, does not love often become a bloody business of suicide 

 and murder ? Yet to the honor of humanity be it said, spiders do one 

 thinof which our sort do not : they kill their lovers, and then eat them 

 up on the spot. In many species the male is much smaller than the 

 female, and with these courtship is perilous. The female of the gar- 

 den-spider is a perfect Amazon, and, when she happens to object to 

 the attentions of her intended spouse, he has to fly for his life ; a feat 

 which he generally performs by flinging himself like lightning out 



