106 THE GiiAssiiorrEn. 



Happy insect, happy, Ihou 



Dost neither age nor winter know, 



But when thou'st drunk, and danc'd and sunj 



Thy fill, the flowing leaves among, 



Sated with thy summer feast, 



Tiiou retirs't to endless rest. 



There is also a very pleasing and elegant 

 tale, related by ancient authors of two rival 

 musicians, alternately playing for a prize; 

 one of the candidates was so unfortunate 

 as to break a string of his lyre, by which 

 accident he would certainly have failed ; 

 when a Cicada, flying near, happened to 

 settle on his lyre, and by its own note sup- 

 plied the defective string, and thus enabled 

 the favourite candidate to overcome his anta- 

 gonist. So remarkable was the event, that 

 a statue was erected to perpetuate the 

 memory of it, on which a man is represented 

 playing on a lyre, on which sits a Cicada 

 (Grasshopper). 



This Insect begins its song early in the 

 morning, and continues it during the heat of 

 the noon-tide sun. Its lively and animated 

 music is, to the country people, a presage of 

 a^fine summer, a plentiful harvest, and the 



