174 PEPACTON 



It is also probably untrue that 



" The poor beetle that we tread upon, 

 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies," 



though it has suited the purpose of other poets be- 

 sides Shakespeare to say so. The higher and more 

 complex the organization the more acute the pleas- 

 ure and the pain. A toad has been known to live 

 for days with the upper part of its head cut away 

 by a scythe, and a beetle will survive for hours 

 upon the fisherman's hook. It perhaps causes a 

 grasshopper less pain to detach one of its legs than 

 it does a man to remove a single hair from his 

 beard. Nerves alone feel pain, and the nervous 

 system of a beetle is a very rudimentary affair. 



In "Coriolanus" there is a comparison which 

 implies that a man can tread upon his own shadow, 

 a difficult feat in northern countries at all times 

 except midday; Shakespeare is particular to men- 

 tion the time of day : 



" Such a nature, 



Tickled with good success, disdains the shadow 

 Which he treads on at noon." 



