6 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



I was so fortunate as to witness a spectacle of this kind, 

 which afforded me a more sublime gratification than any 

 work or exhibition of art has power to communicate. 

 The first was in 1811: taking an evening walk near 

 rny house, when the sun declining fast towards the hori- 

 zon shone forth without a cloud, the whole atmosphere 

 over and near the stream swarmed with infinite myriads 

 of Ephemerae and little gnats of the genus Chirono- 

 mus, which in the sun-beam appeared as numerous and 

 more lucid than the drops of rain, as if the heavens 

 were showering down brilliant gems. Afterwards, in 

 the following year, one Sunday, a little before sun-set, 

 I was enjoying a stroll with a friend at a greater distance 

 from the river, when in a field by the road-side the same 

 pleasing scene was renewed, but in a style of still greater 

 magnificence ; for, from some cause in the atmosphere, 

 the insects at a distance looked much larger than they 

 really were. The choral dances consisted principally of 

 Ephemera, but there were also some of Chironomi ; the 

 former, however, being most conspicuous, attracted our 

 chief attention alternately rising and falling, in the full 

 beam they appeared so transparent and glorious, that 

 they scarcely resembled any thing material they re- 

 minded us of angels and glorified spirits drinking life 

 and joy in the effulgence of the Divine favour a . The 

 bard of Twickenham, from the terms in which his beau- 

 tiful description of his sylphs is conceived in The Rape 

 of the Lock, seems to have witnessed the pleasing scene 

 here described : 



a The authors of this work were the witnesses of the magnificent 

 scene here described. It was on the second of September. The 

 first was on the ninth of that month. 



