The Life of the Grasshopper 



years running, at the right time, I collect in 

 boxes, tubes and jars a hundred twigs of all 

 sorts colonized with Cicada-eggs; not one of 

 them shows me what I am so anxious to see, 

 the emergence of the budding Cicadae. 



Reaumur experienced the same disappoint- 

 ment. He tells us how all the eggs sent by 

 his friends proved failures, even when he 

 carried them in a glass tube in his fob to give 

 them a mild temperature. O my revered 

 master, neither the warm shelter of our 

 studies nor the niggardly heating-apparatus 

 of our breeches is enough in this case ! What 

 is needed is that supreme stimulant, the 

 kisses of the sun; what is needed, after the 

 morning coolness, which already is sharp 

 enough to make us shiver, is the sudden glow 

 of a glorious autumn day, summer's last 

 farewell. 



It was in such circumstances as these, 

 when a bright sun supplied a violent con- 

 trast to a cold night, that I used to find signs 

 of hatching; but I always came too late: the 

 young Cicadae were gone. At most I some- 

 times happened to find one hanging by a 

 thread from his native stalk and struggling 

 in mid-air. I thought him caught in some 

 shred of cobweb. 



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