THE LOVE OF I.IFE. 147 



The Love of Life. 



It is one of the many good things about nature stud\- 

 that it tends to awaken S3'mpathy for all living things. 

 Indeed, this is true of science, also, for scientific investi- 

 gation leads to reverence for all forms of life, since in 

 whatever form it is manifested, life is still one of the pro- 

 foundest and most solemn of the mj'steries. 



The life of an insect, a reptile or even a worm is pre- 

 cious in the sight of the sincere nature lover, and of the 

 true scientist as well. Many instances are known where 

 men who prosecuted studies in natural history all their 

 lives grew more and more considerate of the creatures it 

 was necessarj' for them to kill. Not only did the good 

 English rector, William Kirby, whose great work on in- 

 sects is still sought after, comfort himself with the assur- 

 ance that he had saved the lives of as many that had fall- 

 en in the water as he had destroyed in all his studies, but 

 the great anatomist, Ivyonnet, who lived for years with a 

 scalpel almost constantly in hand, was wont to boast that 

 in prosecuting his remarkable investigation of the muscu- 

 lar structure of the willow grub, he was able to bring his 

 prolonged labors to a conclusion without killing more than 

 eight or nine individuals of the species he wished to de- 

 scribe. 



A gentleman who for several years made a special study 

 of the dragon-flies, which manj^ people foolishly fear, came 

 to have such sympathy with the joyous life of these beau- 

 tiful denizens of the air that, although often afield with 

 his net, he would frequently watch them for hours without 

 attempting a single capture. 



Those who have learned to value life for life's sake — for 

 the wonder and beauty of it — will not hastily declare Jules 

 Michelet extravagant when he wrote concerning an ento- 

 mological journey in Switzerland that '' A fly hid from us 



