The Life of the Grasshopper 



a few rare instances, is this equality of 

 strength and skill in the two hands possible? 



The Cricket answers no: there is an ori- 

 ginal weakness in the left side, a want of 

 balance, which habit and training can to a 

 certain extent correct, but which they can 

 never cause wholly to disappear. Though 

 shaped by a training which takes it at its 

 birth and moulds and solidifies it on the top 

 of the other, the left wing-case none the less 

 resumes the lower position when the insect 

 tries to sing. As to the cause of this original 

 inferiority, that is a problem which belongs 

 to embryogenesis. 



My failure confirms the fact that the left 

 wing-case is unable to make use of its bow, 

 even when supplemented by the aid of art. 

 Then what is the object of that hook whose 

 exquisite precision yields in no respect to that 

 of the other? We might appeal to reasons 

 of symmetry and talk about the repetition 

 of an archetypal design, as I, for want of 

 a better argument, did just now in the matter 

 of the cast raiment which the young Cricket 

 leaves on the threshold of his ovular sheath; 

 but I prefer to confess that this would be 

 but the semblance of an explanation, wrapped 

 up in specious language. For the Decticus, 

 336 



