6 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



I was SO fortunate as to witness a spectacle of this kind, 

 which afforded me a more sublime gratification than any 

 work or exhibition of art has power to communicate. — 

 The first was in 1811: — taking an evening walk near 

 my house, when the sun declining fast towards the hori- 

 zon shone forth without a cloud, the whole atmosphere 

 over and near the stream swarmed with infinite myriads 

 of Ephemerae and little gnats of the genus Chirono- 

 mus, which in the sun-beam appeared as numerous and 

 more lucid than the drops of rain, as if the heavens 

 were showering down brilliant gems. — Afterwards, in 

 the following year, one Sunday, a little before sun-set, 

 I was enjoying a stroll with a friend at a greater distance 

 from the river, when in a field by the road-side the same 

 pleasing scene was renewed, but in a style of still greater 

 magnificence ; for, from some cause in the atmosphere, 

 the insects at a distance looked much larger than they 

 really were. The choral dances consisted principally of 

 Ephemerce, but there were also some of Chironomi ; the 

 former, however, being most conspicuous, attracted our 

 chief attention — alternately rising and falling, in the full 

 beam they appeared so transparent and glorious, that 

 they scarcely resembled any thing material — they re- 

 minded us of angels and glorified spirits drinking life 

 and joy in the effulgence of the Divine favour *. The 

 bard of Twickenham, from the terms in which his beau- 

 tiful description of his sylphs is conceived in TJie^ Rape 

 of the Lock, seems to have witnessed the pleasing scene 

 here described : 



■^ The authors of this work were the witnesses of the magnificent 

 scene here described. It was on the second of September. The 

 first was on the ninth of that month. 



