1S2 THE MAY FLY. 



delivered by an ancient Ephemera, to a sur- 

 rounding multitude of his fellow-insects, is 

 from the pen of the celebrated Dr. Benjamin 

 Franklin : — 



" My Brethren ; — It was the opinion of 

 learned philosophers of our race, who lived 

 and flourished long before my time, that this 

 vast world, the Moulin Joli^ could not itself 

 subsist more than eighteen hours; and I 

 think there was some foundation for that 

 opinion; since by the apparent motion of 

 the great luminary, that gives life to all 

 nature, and which, in my time, has evi- 

 dently declined considerably towards the 

 ocean at the end of the earth, it must then 

 finish its course, be extinguished in the 

 waters that surround us, and leave the world 

 in cold and darkness, necessarily producing 

 universal death and destruction. I have 

 lived seven of those hours; a great age, 

 being no less than four hundred and twenty 

 minutes of time. How very few of us con- 

 tinue so long ! I have seen generations 

 born, flourish, and expire. My present 

 friends are the children, and grandchildren 

 of the friends of my youth, who are now. 



