114 ON THE LUMINOSITY 



eloquence amongst us ; and what had I to oppose to it ? I am 

 not eloquent; — I cannot use nice-turned phrases; — I am not 

 used to addressing an assembly like those now before me — 



" Mais quelque defiance 

 Que me doit donner la susdite eloquence, 

 Et le susdit credit ; ce ncanmoins, messieurs, 

 L'ancre de vos bontes me rassure. D'ailleurs, 

 Devant le grand Dandin 1 'innocence est bardie 

 Qui, devant ce Caton de Basse-Normandie 

 Ce soleil d'equite que n'est jamais terni. 

 Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa latoni." 



The last four lines I must beg leave to translate thus. " From 

 the perfect confidence that I feel in the good sense of those I 

 have the honour to address, and in the impartiality of our 

 Chairman, I have no doubt that my want of eloquence to sup- 

 port a good cause will not injure it even when it has such 

 opposition to contend with." I must first reply to the learned 

 author of the Letters of Rusticus, who talks so much of common 

 consent. He first misrepresents the objects of my remarks, 

 then ridicules them. In quoting the different authors to whom 

 I referred, I had in view one thing, which was to prove that 

 we have, in favour of the luminosity of Fulgora, only the 

 authority of a woman, notorious for her falsehoods or blunders, 

 (contradicted positively by more than one correct observer) ; 

 whilst, on the other hand, we have a host of authorities to 

 prove the brilliancy of the Lampyrites and Elateres in the 

 tropics, and that therefore it was far better either to cut off" the 

 rays round our Fulgora, or to place on our title-page the figure of 

 an insect undoubtedly luminous, rather than that of one whose 

 luminosity was at the least, very, very doubtful. But the 

 author of the Letters of Rusticus tells me it is luminous by 

 common consent. Common consent of whom ? all the world ? 

 No, forsooth, not of a thousand persons. Well, then, being 

 luminous by common consent, it is so to be till proved not to 

 be so. It is written in the History of Gualtimala, composed 

 by a monk of the name of Juarros, that in a certain province 

 of what is now called Central America, there is a species of 

 grasshopper, to the exterior surface, or outer coat, of whose 

 stomach adhere certain little seeds like those of the passion- 

 flower. These being sown, spring up and become a species of 

 gourd, bearing little round fruit, the seed of which being next 



