6 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OJ-' INSECTS. 



cold for them. In the beginning of September, for two 

 successive years, I was so fortunate as to witness a 

 spectacle of this kind, which afforded me a more sub- 

 lime gratification than any work or exhibition of art 

 has power to communicate. — The first was in 1811 : — 

 taking an evening walk by a river near my house, when 

 the sun declining fast towards the horizon 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 ChironGmus, Latr., which 

 in the sun-beam appeared as numerous and more lucid 

 than the drops of rain, as if the heavens were shower- 

 ing down brilliant gems. — Afterwards, in the following 

 year, one Sunday, a little before sun-set, I was enjoy- 

 ing a stroll with a friend at a greater distance from the 

 river, v/hen in a field by the road-side the same pleas- 

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

 magnificence ; for, from some cause in the atmosphere, 

 the insects at a distance looked mucli larger than they 

 really were. The choral dances consisted principally 

 of EphemeriE, but there were also some of Chironomi ; 

 the former, however, being most conspicuous, attracted 

 our chief attention — alternately rising and failing, in 

 the full beam they appeared so transparent and glori- 

 ous, that they scarcely resembled any thing material — 

 they reminded us of angels and glorified spirits drink- 

 ing life and joy in the efiuls,ence of the Divine favour\ 

 The bard of Twickenham, from the terms in which his 

 beautiful description of his sylphs is conceived in The 



' The authors of this work were the witnesses of tlie miisnificeiit 

 scene here described. It was on the second of S^cptembcr. The iirst w:is 

 on the ninth of that month. 



