262 SOUNDS FROM ANIMATE NATURE. 



our happiness will be improved by our devotion to it. By 

 studying the various sounds of nature and by habitually 

 giving our attention to them, we become more and more 

 sensitive to their influence and capable of hearing music 

 to which others are deaf. 



Cheerful sounds come chiefly from animated things ; 

 and from this we may infer that the mass of living crea- 

 tures, in spite of the evils to which they are exposed and 

 the pains they suffer, are happy. The chirping of insects 

 denotes their happiness. No man goes out in the autumn 

 and listens to the din of crickets and grasshoppers among 

 the green herbs, and regards it as a melancholy sound. To 

 all ears these notes express the joy of the creatures that 

 utter them. Those doleful moralists who look upon every- 

 thing as born to woe are greatly deluded ; else why do not 

 the voices of the sufferers give utterance to their pangs ? 

 Why, instead of uttering what seern like songs of praise, 

 do they not cry out in doleful strains that would excite 

 our pity ? The greater part of the life of every creature 

 is filled with agreeable sensations. 



The fly, the gnat, the beetle, and the moth, though each 

 makes a hum that awakens many pleasing thoughts and 

 images, are not to be ranked among singing insects. 

 Among the latter are crickets and locusts and grasshop- 

 pers, which are appointed by nature to take up their little 

 lyre and drum after the birds have laid aside their more me- 

 lodious pipe and flute. Their musical apparatus is placed 

 outside of their bodies, and as they have no lungs, the air 

 is obtained by a peculiar inflation of their chests. Hence 

 the musical appendages of insects are constructed like 

 reed instruments or jews'-harps. The grasshoppers in all 

 ages have been noted as musical performers, and in certain 

 ancient vignettes are frequently represented as playing on 

 the harp. 



Each species of insect has a peculiar modulation of his 



