106 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



with which its geometric web is measured, and so, thus, 

 it is a foot to walk with, a conib to clean, and a gauge to 

 measure. 



Now, while endeavouring to learn a lesson from what 

 naturally belongs to the invisible world, let me show the 

 foot of another spider, that you may compare it with that 

 of the garden spider. 



Spiders, just like many men, have their own reasons 

 for dwelling, not only apart, but in different spheres and 

 different localities. Some prefer to float in the air, like 

 a balloon ; others are fond of the water, and live in a 

 most wonderful air-proof house in the midst of what you 

 would say must drown it. Some prefer our company 

 in our houses; others the fields; many we know of in 

 our gardens ; and one branch of this very much abused 

 family has a peculiar fondness for the cellar. The extra- 

 ordinary large webs to be found in some cellars almost 

 suggest combined effort. 



Here is the leg and foot of a cellar spider, which has 

 astonished and delighted many a beholder. May you be 

 reckoned among the number ! 



Now, an animal that lives in a coal-cellar is subject 

 to be in a constant state of dirt ; and because the spider 

 who thus lives must subsist only upon what it catches 

 there, and because it has one way only of catching flies, 

 upon which alone, like its numerous relations, it can feed, 

 it needs especial instruments, not only to keep its body 

 but its habitation clean ; for if it have no web it can have 

 no fly, and without a fly it can have no web. What do 

 you say ? " Why, here are not only combs, but brushes 

 too ! " Just so ; and " not only combs," as a dear old lady 

 once exclaimed when I showed her this deeply interest- 

 ing specimen, " but tortoise-shell combs also," in allusion 

 to their transparent colour, which you see is a reddish 



