12 INSECTS. 



the character of the Angel of Death, watches the butter- 

 fly which is escaping from the body. Terra, present at 

 the birth, is here present at the death, as if to take back 

 to herself the mortal remains ; while Mercury, the soul- 

 bearer, is seen transporting the figure of Psyche, or the 

 soul a female, with butterfly's wings to the regions of 

 the blest. 



Amongst our own less observant and less poetical 

 countrymen, we may perhaps refer the naming of these 

 insects to a feeling of superstition, or a state of mind 

 akin to that described by Bishop Taylor, when "every 

 bush is a wild beast, and every shadow is a ghost, and 

 every glowworm is a dead man's candle, and every lantern 

 is a spirit ;" and accept Messrs. Kirby and Spence's sug- 

 gestion that it is from the old notion that the dead fly 

 about at night in search of light, that in the north and 

 west of England the nocturnal moths which fly into the 

 candles are called sanies (souls), as in Germany they 

 are " ghosts ;" while the Italians believe the fireflies to 

 be spirits arisen from the graves, and avoid them in 

 terror. 



It is gratifying to turn from the contemplation of super- 

 stitious cowardice to the example of valour tempered by 

 mercy, given by our British Ajax Telamon, who, "when 

 grown as mad as any hare (For he had sought each place 

 with care, And found his Queen was missing)" 



" He next upon a glowworm light, 

 (You must suppose it now was night,) 

 Which, for her hinder part was bright, 



He took to be a devil : 

 And furiously doth her assail, 

 For carrying fire in her tail ; 

 He thrashed her rough coat with his flail ; 

 The mad king feared no evil. 



