COMPARISON OF GRASS- AND TREE-HOPPERS. 3 



from the egg within a protecting fissure in some lofty branch 

 a groove formed by its mother with instinctive foresight, 

 aided by efficient tools wherewith the Great Parent of all 

 had furnished her. " Earth-born," therefore, was a term by 

 no means applicable to the tree-born Tettix ; whereas, to our 

 grasshopper, who first emerges into life within a nest exca- 

 vated in the ground, it is not, in a limited sense, inappropriate. 

 To return now to our ode.*- 



" Happy insect ! what can be 

 In happiness compared to thee ?" 



This felicity, without pretending to decide on its comparative 

 or positive amount, we may fairly suppose to be tolerably equal 

 with the hoppers of the tree and of the grass. 



" Fed with nourishment divine, 

 The dewy morning's gentle wine, 

 Nature waits upon thee still, 

 And thy verdant cup does fill ; 

 'Tis filled wherever thou dost tread, 

 Nature's self thy Ganymede !" 



This may be said no less truly than prettily of both our 

 summer minstrels, only with reservation. Both, doubtless, 

 take a similar delight in quaffing the " morning's gentle 

 wine," the one, from the emerald salver of a leaf, the other, 

 from the golden chalice of a buttercup ; but, as vegetable 

 feeders, both of no mean appetite, this " nourishment divine" 



* As Englished by Cowley. 

 VOL. III. B 



