The Life of the Grasshopper 



you do not spend months on end in calling 

 to some one who is at your elbow. Then 

 again, I never see a female come rushing 

 into the midst of the very noisiest orchestra. 

 Sight is enough as a prelude to marriage 

 here, for it is excellent; the wooer has no 

 use for an everlasting declaration : the wooed 

 is his next-door neighbour. 



Could it be a means then of charming, of 

 touching the indifferent one? I still have 

 my doubts. I notice no signs of satisfaction 

 in the females; I do not see them give the 

 least flutter nor sway from side to side, 

 though the lovers clash their cymbals never 

 so loudly. 



My neighbours the peasants say that, at 

 harvest-time, the Cicada sings, " Sego, sego, 

 sego! Reap, reap, reap!" to encourage 

 them to work. Whether harvesters of 

 wheat or harvesters of thought, we follow 

 the same occupation, one for the bread of 

 the stomach, the other for the bread of the 

 mind. I can understand their explanation, 

 therefore; and I accept it as an instance of 

 charming simplicity. 



Science asks for something better; but she 

 finds in the insect a world that is closed to us. 

 There is no possibility of divining or even 



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