INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 129 



The noise the locusts make when engaged in the work of destruction 

 has been compared to the sound of a flame of fire driven by the wind, and 

 the effect of their bite to that of fire. 1 The poet Southey has very 

 strikingly described the noise produced by their flight and approach : 



" Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud 

 Of congregated myriads numberless, 

 The rushing of whose wings was as the sound 

 Of a broad river headlong in its course 

 Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 

 Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 

 Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks!" 2 



But no account of the appearance and ravages of these terrible insects, 

 for correctness and sublimity, comes near that of the prophet Joel, " A 

 day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, 

 as the morning spread upon the mountains ; a great people and a strong : 

 there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even 

 to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them, and 

 behind them a flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden before 

 them, and behind them a desolate wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall 

 escape them. Like the noise of chariots 3 on the tops of mountains shall 

 they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a 

 strong people set in battle array. Before their faces the people shall be 

 much pained : all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty 

 men ; they shall climb the wall like men of war ; and they shall march 

 every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks ; neither shall 

 one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path : and when they 

 fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and 

 fro in the city ; they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the 

 houses ; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall 

 quake before them, the heavens shall tremble : the sun and the moon shall 

 be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining!" The usual way in 

 which they are destroyed is also noticed by the prophet. " I will remove 

 far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren 

 and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward 

 the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come 

 up, because he hath done great things ! " 4 



I think, after a serious consideration of all these well-attested facts, 

 when locusts contend with the two-legged destroyers of the human race 

 for proud pre-eminence in mischief, you will find it difficult to determine 

 to which the palm should be decreed ; and you will admire the propriety 

 with which, in the above and other passages of Holy Writ, they are 

 selected as symbols of the great ravagers of the earth of our own species. 



In many of the above instances these devastators appear to have crossed 

 the seas, but Hasselquist asserts that they are not formed for such ex- 

 tensive flights. " The grasshopper or locust," says he, " is not formed for 

 travelling over the sea, it cannot fly far, but must alight as soon as it 



1 See Bochart, Hierozoic. P. 1. iv. c. 5. 474, 475. 

 Southey 's Thalaba, i. 169. 



3 Of the symbolical locusts in the Apocalypse it is said " And the sound of their 

 wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to battle," ix. 9. 

 < Joel, ii. 2-10. 20. 



K 



