LUMINOUS INSECTS. 161 



modest radiance of the glowworm ; the planetary bodies, for 

 ever wheeling in their orbits, are better represented by the rest- 

 less fire-fly ; whilst the streaming meteor and blazing comet find 

 their prototypes in the brilliant Fulgorce, or Lantern-carriers, as 

 described shooting in eccentric courses across the gloom of 

 tropic skies. 



Then, for the luminaries of the world considered morally, 

 we shall be at no loss -to find symbolic parallels in the varied 

 qualities, habits, and localities of luminous insects. Our little 

 English glowworm, as she glimmers on her mossy bank, how 

 well, to borrow the words of a late lamented poet,*" does she 

 serve to represent those quiet Christian spirits, who 



" in humble trust 



Sliiiie meekly 'mid their native dust, 

 The glowworms of the earth !" 



And if, as opposed to these modest "lights/' we desire cor- 

 respondents for the " stars " of the world, we may scarcely find 

 more apt ones than in the great lantern-flies, the radiant up- 

 roarious night-singers, the scare-sleeps of Guiana, bearing aloft 

 their fiery flambeaux, like torches of noisy revellers, and grating 

 on the " ear of night " by the harsh music of their loud dis- 

 cordant cymbals. 



The attention of philosophers was in very early ages directed 

 to various phenomena resulting from the properties of light, 

 and, amongst others, the remarkable phosphoric appearances 



* Wordsworth. 



