^8 THE CAUSES WHICH PROPAGATE 



and lineage of Cadmus from coquetting its golden charm in 

 their flowing" hair, when the blood had crimsoned the sacriticial 



axe. 



" ! thou of all creation blest, 

 Tettix ! that delight'st to rest 

 Upon the wild wood's leafy tops, 

 To drink the dew that morning drops, 

 And chirp thy song with such a glee. 

 That happiest kings may envj- thee ! 

 Whatever decks the velvet field, 

 Whatever buds, whatever blows, 

 For thee it buds, for thee it grows. 

 Nor yet art thou the peasant's fear. 

 To him thy friendly notes are dear ; 

 And still, when summer's flowery hue 

 Begins to paint the bloomy plain. 

 We hear thy sweet prophetic strain. 

 Thy sweet prophetic strain we hear. 

 And bless the notes, and thee revere ! 

 The muses love thy shrilly tone ; 

 Apollo calls thee all his own ; 

 'Twas he who gave that voice to thee, 

 'Tis he who tunes thy minstrelsy. 

 Unworn by age's dim decline, 

 The fadeless blooms of youth are thine. 

 Melodious insect ! child of earth ! 

 In wisdom mirthful, wise in mirth ; 

 Exempt from every weak decay. 

 That withers vulgar forms away ; 

 With not a di'op of blood to stain 

 The current of thy purer vein ; 

 So blest an age is passed by thee, 

 Thou seem'st a little deity." 



Or if desire arose to catch and imprison so vagrant a 

 spirit, and, placing it on rosy fingers, to drink in its floating trill 

 awaking summer''s echo, it was then that the notes em- 

 bodied a sophistry, whispering to earth-born beauty of meta- 

 morjjhic youth and bloom in fields of asphodel, with eternal 

 banquet on celestial music, perchance on some ocean isle fanned 

 with the sea-breeze, and yet unknown to the mariner; or, 

 perchance, far away among yon stars, nascent in the dim 

 penumbra of the clear Grecian sky. There Leander might ever 

 court his Prote, or Faust his Marguerite, or the Turk be loved 

 hereafter by the black-eyed liouris with green handkerchiefs. 



But we also rather the noontide Cicadse were not the 



