12 Insect Architecture. 



How much rational amusement and innocent pleasure is thus 

 thoughtlessly lost; and how many disagreeable feelings are 

 thus created, in the most absurd manner ! "In order to show 

 that the study or (if the word be disliked) the observation of 

 insects is peculiarly fascinating to children, even in their 

 early infancy, we may refer to what we have seen in the 

 family of a friend, who is partial to this, as well as to all 

 the departments of natural history. Our friend's children, 

 a boy and girl, were taught, from the moment they could 

 distinguish insects, to treat them as objects of interest and 

 curiosity, and not to be afraid even of those which wore the 

 most repulsive appearance. The little girl, for example, 

 when just beginning to walk alone, encountered one day a 

 large staphylinus (Goerius olens ? STEPHENS ; vulgo, the devil's 

 coach-horse), which she fearlessly seized, and did not quit her 

 hold, though the insect grasped one of her fingers in his 

 formidable jaws. The mother, who was by, knew enough 

 of the insect to be rather alarmed for the consequences, 

 though she prudently concealed her feelings from the child. 

 She 'did well ; for the insect was not strong enough to break 

 the skin, and the child took no notice of its attempts to bite 

 her finger. A whole series of disagreeable associations with 

 this formidable-looking family of insects was thus averted at 

 the very moment when a different mode of acting on the part 

 of the mother would have produced the contrary effect. For 

 more than two years after this occurrence the little girl and 

 her brother assisted in adding numerous specimens to their 

 father's collection, without the parents ever having cause, 

 from any accident, to repent of their employing themselves 

 in this manner. The sequel of the little girl's history 

 strikingly illustrates the position for which we contend. 

 The child happened to be sent to a relative in the country, 

 where she was not long in having carefully instilled into her 

 mind all the usual antipathies against " everything that 

 creepeth on the earth ;" and though she afterwards returned 

 to her paternal home, no persuasion or remonstrance could 

 ever again persuade her to touch a common beetle, much less 

 a staphylinus, with its tail turned up in a threatening attitude, 



