The Life of the Grasshopper 



Indus, the ancient story, perhaps as old as 

 the first piece of economical advice vouch- 

 safed by Paterfamilias and handed down 

 more or less faithfully from memory to 

 memory, must have undergone an alteration 

 in its details, as do all legends which the 

 course of the ages adapts to circumstances 

 of time and place. 



The Greek, not possessing in his fields the 

 insect of which the Hindu spoke, dragged 

 in, as the nearest thing to it, the Cicada, 

 even as in Paris, the modern Athens, the 

 Cicada is replaced by the Grasshopper. The 

 mischief was done. Henceforth ineradica- 

 ble, since it has been confided to the memory 

 of childhood, the mistake will prevail against 

 an obvious truth. 



Let us try to rehabilitate the singer slan- 

 dered by the fable. He is, I hasten to 

 admit, an importunate neighbour. Every 

 summer he comes and settles in his hundreds 

 outside my door, attracted by the greenery 

 of two tall plane-trees; and here, from sun- 

 rise to sunset, the rasping of his harsh 

 symphony goes through my head. Amid this 

 deafening concert, thought is impossible; 

 one's ideas reel and whirl, are incapable of 

 concentrating. When I have not profited by 



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