164 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



The noise the locusts make when engaged in the work of destruction 

 has been compared to the sound of a flame of fire driven by the wind, 

 and the effect of their bite to that of fire.^ The poet Southey has very 

 strikingly described the noise produced by their flight and approach : — 



" Onward they came a dark continuous cloud 

 Of congregated myriads numberless, 

 The rushing of whose wings was as the sound 

 Of a broad river headlorig 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 rocks ! "* 



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 generations. 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 ; nei- 

 ther 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 climb 

 up upon the houses ; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The 

 earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble : the sun and 

 the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining!" 

 The usual way in which they are destroyed is also noticed by the prophet. 

 " I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him 

 into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his 

 hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his 

 ill savor shall come up, because he hath done great things !"* 



I think, after a serious consideration of all these well attested facts, 

 when locusts contend with the two-legged destroyers of the human race 

 for proud pre-eminence in mischief, you will find it difficult to determine 

 to which the palm should be decreed ; and you will admire the propriety 

 with which, in the above and other passages of Holy Writ, they are 

 selected as symbols of the great ravagers of the earth of our own species. 



In many of the above instances these devastators appear to have cross- 

 ed the seas, but Hasselquist asserts that they are not formed for such ex- 

 tensive fights. " The grasshopper or locust," says he, " is not formed 

 for traveling over the sea, — it cannot fly far, but must alight as soon as it 

 rises ; for one that came on board us a hundred certainly were drowned. 



» See Bochart, Hierozoic. P. 1. iv. c. 5. 474, 475. « Southey's Thalaba, i, 169. 



' 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. 

 « Joel, ii. 2—10. 20. 



