FLIES. 



ENGLISH poets, whenever they have condescended to 

 take notice of the domestic fly, have done so from a 

 favourable point of view. It is for them the sportive fly, 

 the jocund fly, or, at worst, the giddy fly. This in itself will 

 be a sufficient proof to future generations that the poets of 

 our day did not suffer from the loss of their hair, for no 

 bald-headed man would view the foibles of the fly indul- 

 gently. It must, therefore, be assumed as proved that the 

 mental exercise of the elaboration of poetry causes a certain 

 cerebral warmth which conduces to the growth of the hair ; 

 and this view of the case will receive an additional support 

 should any portraits of Lord Tennyson be extant at the 

 time when this investigation takes place. It is singular 

 that, whereas bald-headed men have a marked and unani- 

 mous objection to flies, the latter have on their part a 

 warm and effusive affection for bald-headed men. No 

 philosopher has, so far as we know, attempted to explain 

 the irresistible attraction which a bald head presents to a 

 fly. It has been suggested, indeed, that, owing to its high 

 polish and its capacity for reflecting light, it is assumed to 

 be a luminous globe, and so exercises the same attraction 

 to the fly as the globe of a gas light does to the nocturnal 

 moth. A far more probable solution is that, as we know, 



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