ESSAYS AT A EEPIJBLIO. 201 



eye to form but a single edifice, and are only separated by a small 

 opening which serves as an entry to the nest ; and one entrance 

 frequently is common to three nests, one of which is placed at the 

 bottom, and the others on each side. It has 320 cells, and will hold 

 640 inhabitants, if each contains a couple, which may be doubted. 

 Every time, however, that I have aimed at a swarm, I have killed the 

 same number of males and females." 



A laudable example, and woiihy of imitation ! I wish I could 

 but believe that the fraternity of those poor little ones was a suffi- 

 cient protection. Their number and their noise may sometimes alarm 

 the enemy, disturb the monster, make him take another direction. 

 But if he should persist ; if, strong in his scaly skin, the boa, deaf to 

 their cries, mounts to the attack, invades the city at the time when 

 the fledglings have as yet no wings for flight, their numbei-s then can 

 but multiply the victims. 



There remains the idea of Aristophanes, the aerial city—to isolate 

 it from earth and water, and build in the air. 



This is a stroke of genius. And to carry it out is needed the 

 miracle of the two foremost powers in the world- — love and fear. 



Of the most vivid fear ; of that which freezes your blood : if, 

 peering through a hole in a tree, the black flat head of a cold reptile 

 rises and hisses in your face, though you are a man, and a brave man, 

 you tremble. 



How much more must the little, feeble, disarmed creature, sur- 

 prised in its nest, and unable to make use of its wings — how much 

 more must it tremble, and sink panic-stricken ! 



The invention of the aerial city took place in the land of ser- 

 pents. 



Africa, the realm of monsters, in its horrible arid wastes, sees 

 them cover the earth. Asia, on the burning shore of Bombay, in her 

 forests where the mud ferments, makes them swarm, and fatten, and 

 swell with venom. In the Moluccas they are innumerable. 



Thence came the inspiration of the Loxia pensilis (the gi-osbeak 

 of the Philippines). Such is the name of the great artist. 



