.'31(1 .MASONIC WORKERS. 



lodgment, of his retreating form,, that our diver is a spider, 

 -the diving water -spider* a species of whose habitation and 

 habits you may possibly remember some other particulars as 

 recorded in a certain Episode yclept " the Fresh-water Syren," 

 an imaginary personage sprung from this aquatic Arachne of 

 our streams and ditches, where, shining in its native simpli- 

 city, her silver diving-bell is often to be seen. 



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But we must leave, for the present, these aquatic mecha- 

 nisms, though as yet but half examined, that we may bcstou 

 a little of our notice upon a few other assembled specimens, 

 first, of the work-animalship, next of the admirably adapted 

 tools employed by inject artificers in their exercise of several 

 crafts wherein they have set us, for ages immemorial, a variety 

 of uncopied patterns. Of their masonry, carpentry, spinning, 

 \\caving, and paper-making, we can show you here some pri- 

 mitive specimens either completed or in progress. Let us 

 attend first to the architectural operations of these masonic 

 builders, not working in concert, but each employed on a 

 M -jiaratr structure. AVc may mention, by the way, as a fact 

 not bespoken \ cry clearly by their apparel, that each of our 

 ouvriers (more properly ouvrieres) is .of the feminine gender. 

 Here is one of them, a sharp, waspish little animal, busied up 

 to her eyes and ears in our own material for building, brick _ 

 a single brick one being big enough to serve her turn, 

 Chipping away her hardest with a trenchant tool, combining 



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