278 BOOK MOTH. 



Another little destructive, who is apt to make herself more 

 free than welcome within the precincts of our dwellings, is 

 called the Tabby,* for what reason we cannot exactly tell. 

 These Moths settle in our libraries and larders; and their 

 numerous families are born and nurtured, just also as it may 

 happen, upon books or butter. Their taste, when literary, is, 

 however, like that of many other bibliomaniacs, somewhat 

 superficial, having reference rather to the leather than the 

 language : the binding, rather than the body, of the works is 

 the object of their esteem. A Moth caterpillar of another 

 description dives, however, somewhat deeper into learned lore, 

 and, devouring the page adorned by mildew and black-letter, 

 prizes books in proportion to their mouldiness rather than 

 their merit. 



Our Moth destructives have now been traced home to our 

 houses and our cabinets, to the clothing of our bodies and the 

 works of our hands, even to the productions of our brains ; 

 a i ul by adopting them as emblems we may bring them closer 

 still. What better than the tribe of domestic Moths can 

 serve for images of those evil principles, which, taking pos- 

 session, we scarce know when or how, fret and defile the robes 

 of innocence ? And who of us, alas ! ever guards so closely 

 the chinks and crevices of the moral wardrobe, as not to give 

 admission to a few or many of this destructive race ? 



* Ay lossa p i ny u i n a Us . 



