SEEKING THE LIGHT. 121 
two enormous hands, or rather two powerful rakes, which open up its 
way. Though hideous, it is not the less sensitive to the influence of 
spring, but it takes the precaution of never exposing its strange figure 
save to the doubtful rays of the moon. Its plaintive cry singularly 
affects the female; she yields to it, and makes her appearance, but to 
return again into the night and confide to the protecting shade the hope 
of her posterity. 
A frail aquatic insect, the gnat, on this important day assumes the 
daring mission of the navigator. It makes fresh use of its demitted 
envelope, and turns it into a bark. In this it stands upright, extends 
its new wings for sails, glides along the wave, and very frequently 
without shipwreck reaches the shore; where, when dried, the same 
wings will bear it off to the chase and the pursuit of pleasure. In an 
hour it appears a complete master of all these novel arts. It is the 
peculiarity of love to know without having been taught. 
Love is winged. Mythology is perfectly in the right. This is veri- 
fied in the proper sense and without metaphor. In one brief moment, 
Nature displays a restless anxiety to fly towards the beloved object. 
All creatures rise above their own level, all mount towards the light, on 
the pinions of desire. The internal fire is also revealed in glowing 
colours. Every one decorates his person, every one wishes to please. 
The butterfly apparently looks upon you with the great velvety eyes 
which adorn its wings. Beetles of every species, like mobile stones, 
astonish by their brilliant reflexes, their burning vivacities. Finally, 
from the bosom of the shadows bursts the flame of love, naked and 
unveiled, in flashing stars ! 
At such a moment it accomplishes the strangest transformations, 
and from the humblest masks issue, in violent contrast, the superbest 
individuals. 
A dull larva of the morass, which lives only by stratagem, becomes 
the brilliant amazon, the agile wiuged warrior, called Demoiselle 
(libellula). It is the only creature of its tribe which expresses the 
complete liberty of flight, holding the same rank among insects as the 
swallow among birds. Who has not followed with attentive gaze its 
thousand varied movements, its turns, and returns, and the infinite 
