PERSEVERANCE OF THE SPIDER. 391 



brighter side belongs to it. Against spider vices we have a 

 set-off of virtues. Foremost among them stands maternal 

 tenderness, or its very image, shown in the devoted care evinced 

 by weaving mothers of the " treasure" they " tie up" so care- 

 fully in " silken bags ;" and not alone do they care for it while 

 thus enveloped in the shape of little senseless eggs, but when 

 from each egg has issued fortn a little sentient spinner. 



Perseverance is another admirable trait for which the spider 

 is eminently conspicuous. No one can deny it ; no one who 

 has ever watched a garden spider in the construction or the 

 reparation of her geometric web, who has noticed her doubling 

 and redoubling the lines by which her fabric is to hang sus- 

 pended, testing repeatedly their power of support by suspension 

 from them of her own weight as she drops herself, now here, 

 now there, from different portions of the thread. See her in 

 construction of her woven wheel, measuring carefully by her 

 provided ruler one of her own legs each spoke or radius, 

 and each circular mesh which interlaces them ; and behold, 

 finally, after all is completed, so neat, and trim, and regular, 

 how that when her cords are sundered by the struggles of some 

 powerful captive may be, by a Samson blue-bottle she will 

 set to work again so cleverly, so patiently, to repair her broken 

 snare. 



In the death of the darker superstitions which used once to 

 attach to spiders, the remnant of one more cheerful still sur- 

 vives in the name of the " money-spinner," and the toleration, 

 even complacency, wherewith, in comparison with the rest of 

 her sisterhood, this little visitant is still regarded; and truly 

 this shadow of a fancy would be worth the keeping if people 

 would but invest it with the substantiality of a moral such as 

 the " worthy " Fuller thus sets forth : " When a spider," says 

 he, "is found upon our clothes we used. to say 'some money is 

 coming towards us.' The moral is this. Such who imitate the 

 industrie of that contemptible creature, ' which taketh hold 

 with her bunds, and is in king's palaces,' may, by God's 



