294 POPULARITY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



ing, it scarcely answers the purpose intended, as showers of stones from hostile 

 armies, however thick they might fill the air, were not intended, and could 

 scarcely be expected, to fall quite so soft as snow. The following is very 

 beautiful, as displaying not the still life of the snow-storm, but the husbandmen 

 running about in all directions for shelter from the hail, and as they all contrive 

 to crouch somewhere, the image is perfect in reference to ^Eneas, whom the 

 writer has in view, as the hero sustains safely the entire galling efforts of his 

 adversaries, and tires them out : — 



Hail Storm. 



* As when the clouds in battering hail rush down, 



The lab'ring hinds fly diverse o'er the fields. 



And ev'ry swain ; while couch'd beneath a bank 



Or high projecting crag, the traveller lurks, 



Till the rude fury of the blast be o'er, 



And the bright sunbeams bless again the day. 



Just so jEneas, overwhelm'd by foes, 



Sustains their onset." Virg. JEn., x., 803 — 10. 



Pictures of this description are not limited to time, age, or country ; they 

 speak a universal language, and are worth a hundred books of blood and slaughter. 

 The following passing look at the lightning is admirable, short as it is, and could 

 scarcely have been struck off so exactly but by the hand of a Shakspeare : — 



Lightning in a dark night. 



" Brief as the lightning in the collied night, 



That in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth ; 



And, ere a man hath power to say — Behold! 



The jaws of darkness do devour it up : 



So quick bright things come to confusion." Shak. Mids. Night's Dream. 



Similes drawn from particular objects in Nature, or from the habits of well- 

 known animals, have a peculiar charm, because in fact the reference, if correct, 

 is characteristic of the animal, or descriptive of the object mentioned, and as in 

 such a case a colloquial name is sufficiently identifying, a scrap of Natural 

 History is in fact served- up almost before the reader is aware of it. If the 

 simile be just, it marks the author's powers of observation, and the pursuits of 

 the inhabitants of the country, too, where he is writing : Virgil, one may be 

 sure, had chased a Wolf before he penned the following graphic sketch of the 

 prowling caitiff: — 



" So ere the hostile darts beset his way, 

 Conscious of crime, the Wolf forsakes his prey, 

 Bullock or shepherd villainously slain, 

 And by neglected coverts, from the pkin 



