36 OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 



them. Fear and prejudice would have taken deep 

 root upon this occasion, and might liave produced fatal 

 effects upon some weak minds, had not M. Peiresc, a 

 celebrated philosopher of that place, paid attention to 

 insects. A chrysalis, which he preserved in his cabi- 

 net, let him into the secret of this mysterious shower. 

 Hearing a fluttering-, which informed him his insect 

 was arrived at its perfect state, he opened the box in 

 which he kept it. The animal flew out and left behind 

 it a red spot. He compared this with the spots of the 

 bloody shower, and found they were alike. At the 

 same time he observed there was a prodigious quan- 

 tity of butterflies flying about, and that the drops of 

 the miraculous rain were not to be found upon the 

 tiles, nor even upon the upper surface of the stones, but 

 chiefly in cavities and places where rain could not 

 easily come. Thus did this judicious observer dispel 

 the ignorant fears and terror which a natural pheno- 

 menon had caused^. 



The same author relates an instance of the gardener 

 of a gentleman being thrown into a horrible fright by 

 digging some of the curious cases, which I shall here- 

 afler describe to you, of the leaf-cutter bees, and which 

 he conceived to be the effect of Avitchcraft portending 

 some terrible misfortune. By the advice of the priest 

 of the parish he even took a journey from Rouen to 

 Paris, to show them to his master : but he, happily 

 having more sense than the man, carried them to M. 

 Nollet, an eminent naturalist, who having seen simi- 

 lar productions was aware of the cause, and opening- 

 one of the cases, while the gardener stood aghast at his 



* Reaum. i. 66T. 



