222 INDIRF.CT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



" Onward they came a dark continuous cloud 

 Of congregated myriads numberless. 

 The rushing of whose wings was as the sound 

 Of a broad river headlong in its course 

 Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 

 Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm 

 Shattering its billows on a shore of recks* !" 



But no account of the appearance and ravages of these 

 terrific insects, for correctness and sublimity, comes near 

 that of the prophet Joel, " A day of darkness and of 

 gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the 

 morning spread upon the mountains : a great people 

 and a strong : there hath not been ever the like, neither 

 shall be any more after it, even to the years of many ge- 

 nerations. A fire devoureth before them ; and behind 

 them a flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden 

 before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness ; 

 yea, and nothing shall escape them. Like the noise of 

 chariots^ on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like 

 the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, 

 as a strong people set in battle array. Before their faces 

 the people shall be much pained : all faces shall gather 

 blackness. They shall run like mighty men ; they shall 

 climb the wall like men of war, and they shall march 

 every one on his ways, and they shall not break their 

 ranks ; neither shall one thrust another, they shall walk 

 every one in his path : and when they fall upon the sword 

 they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro 

 in the city ; they shall run upon the wall, they shall 



» South cy's Thalaha, i. ICO. 



•> Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said — " And the 

 sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses 

 running to battle." ix. 9. 



