278 



words, natural history presents the two-fold ad- 

 vantage of bearing analogically upon the habits 

 of human life, and of exhibiting, in the most 

 striking and direct manner, the wisdom arid 

 goodness of the Creator? 



But it is probably not in our power, since we 

 are thus forced to judge of the senses of insects 

 by a comparison with our own, to appreciate 

 fully the perfection of the former, or the won- 

 drous sources of joy for there is joy in the free 

 and spontaneous exercise of every sense which 

 God may have prepared for objects that are 

 among the smallest of his creation. The sounds 

 emitted by many insects their songs of triumph 

 or of love, the grateful expression of their de- 

 light in the lap of bounteous nature, of hearts 

 gladdened by sunshine, arid an organization en- 

 livened by the fragrance of flowers, the chirp of 

 surrounding creatures, and the numerically in- 

 finite relations which exist between them and the 

 continuous actions of decay and regeneration in 

 the organic world have from the earliest time, 

 attracted the attention of mankind. The follow- 

 ing illustration of this is beautifully rendered 

 from the original Greek of Archias, by Mr. Hay: 



'Erst on the fir's green, blooming branch, oh grasshopper! 'twas 



thine 



To sit, or on the shady spray of the dusky, tufted pine ; 

 And from thy hollow, well-winged sides, to sound the blythesome 



strain, 

 Sweeter than music of the lyre to the simple shepherd swain." 



Those, too, who loved those " living lyres in 



