The Life of the Grasshopper 



structure is the same ? Perhaps to the differ- 

 ence of diet. Frugality, in fact, softens char- 

 acter, in animals as in men; gross feeding 

 brutalizes it. The gormandizer gorged with 

 meat and strong drink, a fruitful source of 

 savage outbursts, could not possess the gen- 

 tleness of the ascetic who dips his bread into 

 a cup of milk. The Mantis is that gorman- 

 dizer, the Empusa that ascetic. 



Granted. But whence does the one derive 

 her voracious appetite, the other her tem- 

 perate ways, when it would seem as though 

 their almost identical structure ought to pro- 

 duce an identity of needs? These insects tell 

 us, in their fashion, what many have already 

 told us : that propensities and aptitudes do 

 not depend exclusively upon anatomy; high 

 above the physical laws that govern matter 

 rise other laws that govern instincts. 



210 



