DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 63 



And now, which seems to you the greatest terror, that the forest should 

 resound with the roar of the lion or the tiger, or with the hum of the 

 gnat ? Which evil is the most to be deprecated, the neighbourhood of these 

 ferocious animals, terrible as they are for their cruelty and strength, or to 

 live amidst the polar or tropical myriads of mosquitos, and be subject to 

 the torture of their incessant attacks ? When you consider that from the 

 one, prudence and courage may secure or defend us without any material 

 sacrifice of our daily comforts; while to be at rest from the other, we 

 must either render ourselves disgusting by filthy unguents, or be suffocated 

 by fumigations, or be content to be bound, head, hand, and foot, shut out 

 from the respiration of the common air, and even thus scarcely escape 

 from their annoyance ; you will feel convinced that the former is the more 

 tolerable evil of the two, and be inclined to think that those cities, from 

 which the lions were driven away by the more powerful gnats, were no 

 great gainers by the exchange. 1 With what grateful hearts ought the pri- 

 vileged inhabitants of these happy islands to acknowledge and glorify the 

 goodness of that kind Providence which has distinguished us from the 

 less favoured nations of the globe, by what may be deemed an immunity 

 from this tormenting pest ! for the inroads which they make on our 

 comfort, when contrasted with what so many other people of every climate 

 suffer from them, are mere nothing. When we behold on one side of us 

 the ravages of the wide-wasting sword, on another those of infectious 

 disease or pestilence, on a third famine destroying its myriads, and on a 

 fourth life rendered uncomfortable by the terror of " noisome beasts," and 

 the attack of noxious insects; and when we look at home and see every 

 one eating his bread in peace, protected in his enjoyments by equal laws 

 without fearing the sword of the oppressor ; not scourged by pestilence or 

 famine, exposed to the attack of no ferocious animal, and comparatively 

 speaking but slightly visited by the annoyance of insect tormentors ; and 

 especially when we further reflect that it is his mercy and not our merits 

 which has induced him thus to overwhelm us with blessings, while other 

 countries have been made to drink deep of the cup of his fury, we shall 

 see reason for an increased degree of thankfulness and gratitude, and, 

 instead of repining, be well content with our lot, though our offences 

 have not wholly been passed over, and we have been " beaten with few 

 stripes." 



Besides the insects that seek to make us their food, there are others 

 which, although we are apt to regard them with the greatest horror, do 

 not attack us with this view, but usually to revenge some injury which 

 they have received, or apprehend from us. Foremost in the list of these 

 are those with four wings, which, according to the observation of Pliny 

 before quoted, carry their weapon, an instrument of revenge, in their tail. 



generally found to harbour gnats, are, on this account, banished from the neighbour- 

 hood of dwelling houses in America and other hot countries, to the great loss of the 

 occupants in other respects ; but I have been informed by a friend that at Trieste it 

 has been observed that horse-chestnut trees planted near a house, so far from en- 

 couraging gnats, drive them away, none ever appearing in houses surrounded with 

 these trees, though abundant where other kinds prevail, a fact which, if confirmed in 

 o'her countries, would be well worth acting upon. 

 * Mouffet, 85. 



