126 NATURE STUDY. 



ness of the scene; and everywhere, in the court,* in the garden, I 

 found the new and silent guests who had taken possession of our 

 places. 



"Already the gathering mist of evening mingled with the last 

 rays of the sun, and the slugs, tempted by the warm damp air, 

 emerged in crowds from the leaves which strewed the garden- 

 walks. They fared forth, slowly but surely, to feast on the fallen 

 fruit. Clouds of wasps reveled in audacious pillage, tearing to 

 pieces with their keen teeth our finest peaches and most luscious 

 grapes. 



" Our apple-trees, formerly so productive, were covered with 

 net-work woven by the caterpillars, and offered us nothing but yel- 

 low foliage. In less than a year they had grown aged. 



" I had never before been brought in contact with a world like 

 this. My father's vigilance, and still more successfully, the assist- 

 ance of the little birds, had preserved us from it. So, in my inex- 

 perience, and with a heart overcome by the spectacle of so much 

 ruin, I cursed those whom one ought not to curse, because all crea- 

 tures are from God. 



" Later in life, but much later, I understood the designs of Prov- 

 idence. When man is absent, the insect ought to take his place, 

 so that everything may pass throiigh the great crucible, to be re- 

 newed or purified." 



M. Michelet put thi.s account b}' Madame Michelet in 

 his book, " The Insect," from which many brief extracts 

 have been reprinted in Nature Study, and then went on 

 to add some thoughts about the place of insects in nature's 

 plan, which his wife's story of her visit to the deserted 

 country-house had suggested to him. He showed how, 

 as insects have man}- enemies, they must have weapons 

 to defend themselves with, or they must have a shelter, or 

 be protected by their color, so that their enemies cannot 

 find them easily. Then, too, as they must eat, they must 

 work, and to work well, they must have tools, and he 

 named a long list of the "pincers, hooks, saws, pikes, au- 

 gers, screws, rollers and dentilated teeth," which give 

 them a terrif3nng appearance, but are really " the pacific 

 tools with which they gain their livelihood, the implements 



