COLLOQUIA ENTOMOLOGICA. 447 



man himself from yonder sportive crew, surpassing us in size, 

 and armed with strength of body greater, and of mind scarce 

 less, yet bowing down submissive to our will, and worshipping 

 in us our Maker's likeness. 



Cuv. x\nd here the line seems slighter than on earth: there 

 what a power was gained by artifice ! Here every want abun- 

 dantly supplied : the genial air precludes the use of clothes, 

 the teeming soil supplies abundant food, and memory is more 

 than written books ; and all these there we gained by artifice, 

 and gaining them, displayed a difference greater than now 

 appears. It was the mind aiding forbidden lusts, by artifice 

 aiming at lawless power, that assumed the right to take, to 

 injure, to destroy, all that it lusted for, and, drunk with power, 

 sung its own praise ; to hide its impotence, forged fetters, to 

 keep others weaker still, and reigned by superstition o'er its 

 kind. 



Aris. Reason, the highest gift of Providence, and most 

 abused on earth, here reigns supreme ; or rather, for none 

 reigns supreme but One, it is the minister by which He 

 reigns. Reason's eternity is here begun ; 'tis reason teaches what 

 we owe to Him, 'tis reason shows our duty to mankind : but 

 reason is not ours exclusively, all that reflect possess it; man, 

 indeed, the larger portion, but these creatures each in some 

 degree. My Pyttalus, who knows my every will, is not without 

 his share ; for reason is no other than the power that from an 

 obvious cause draws inference. 



Cuv. And therefore 'tis not reason in the bee that builds 

 her waxen cells ; the Maker rules in her by other means more 

 potent still : your Pyttalus or my Mimallones vary each action 

 with the ch'cumstance, they think and act, she acts and never 

 thinks, but builds unceasingly her hexagons. 



Aris. Oh ! hadst thou seen the steed Bucephalus, how 

 well he knew that daring, glorious boy — glorious before his 

 hand was dyed in blood. Ah ! how I loved that boy, and he 

 loved me ! he listened and he learned ; but blood, alas ! erects 



barrier between earth and heaven. It is a weakness, but the 

 rising tear is ever ready when I think on him. 



Cuv. And I, too, have a noble warrior known, whose name, 



,'ith Alexander's, will be heard while time endures on earth : 

 lis giant soul strode over empires, trod on empires' dust. I 

 lever once addressed him but I felt here is my master mind ; 



