MORAL OF THE GNAT. 73 



provided for so many of us (now his mourners) a rich banquet of 

 animal mirth. A German philosopher has said, that " happiness 

 and misfortune stand in continual balance." This is a cheering 

 reflection, and more, it is a fact, continually brought home to 

 our individual experience by the re-action of mental depression 

 and the lively inspirations of hope. 



Let us then, with our Insect model, strive to keep up our 

 buoyancy ; but let us beware of confounding levity with elas- 

 ticity, of mistaking the glare of worldly pleasure for the 

 sunshine of a cheerful heart. Herein also does our little winged 

 philosopher furnish us with a warning as well as an example. 

 He takes delight in his native atmosphere, in sunshine or in rain; 

 he is neither drowned by the one, nor scorched by the other. 

 But how often when he enters the precincts of artificial life, is 

 he tempted to approach the alluring taper, until, drawn within 

 its fiery vortex, his little life of buoyancy is on a sudden changed 

 to one of torture. 



it. - 



fo lu'f() up our linuimmu. V 



