90 ' JOURNAL OF THE 



Thinking there might be an insect capable of running and 

 giving a phosphorescent light to objects in its path in sncli a 

 way as to cause them to be illuminated for a short time, I struck 

 a match so that I might see to capture it. As the light of the 

 match overcame the j)hosphorescence and lighted up the objects 

 on the ground, the only insect I saw was a Myriapod scampering 

 away under the leaves. All this took place in less time than it 

 takes to tell it. Thinking the insect was hidden under the 

 leaves, when the light of the match was extinguished I began to 

 brush them away with my hand. The phosphorescence appeared 

 again, and the light advanced as rapidly as I moved my hand. 

 I thought certainly I was in pursuit of the prize, and in my 

 anxiety to capture it I would catch up a whole handful of earth. 

 But I always noticed that I left the ])hosphorescent light on the 

 ground. The insect eluded me, I thought. After pursuing the 

 phantom in vain for some time, I stopped to ponder. After 

 the habit of a puzzled man in an inquiring mood, I brushed my 

 foot across the earth before me, when lo ! each little pebble and 

 pellet of earth bristled with a phosphorescent light. For a 

 moment I seemed to lose confidence in the fact that all such 

 phenomena are due to natural causes. The air was sparkling 

 with fire-flies, and the earth at my feet was bristling with phos- 

 phorescence. Had time sped backward twenty centuries, and were 

 the vestal fires lighting around me ? Or was some great calamity 

 impending? I seemed to hear these words repeated from the 

 sky: " Nate dea, quo fata trahunt retrahuntque^ sequamur ; Quid- 

 quid erit superanda omnis forturia ferendo est^ But in a mo- 

 ment more I had brushed away these delightful superstitions, 

 and went to work to find the cause. 



Taking a quantity of the earth, I went to my study. First I 

 took several pebbles into a dark i-oom and rubbed them in my 

 hands; no light appeared. Then I took some i)ellets of earth 

 and treated them in like manner; result the same. Surely, I 

 thought, the ])hantom lies in these decaying leaves, but disap- 

 pointment was also the result of the third investigation. I 

 returned to my package of earth, and saw a lone earth-worm 



