82 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



earlier in the evening had struck it down for fun and 

 left it there. By-and-by. I thought, he will recover 

 from the shock to his dignity and make his way to 

 some elevated point, from which he will be able to start 

 afresh in his wanderings in search of a wife. But it was 

 not to be as I thought, for next morning, on going by 

 the same gate I found the remains of my beetle just 

 where I had last seen him the legs, wing-cases, and 

 the big, broad head with horns attached. The poor 

 thing had remained motionless too long, and had been 

 found during the evening by a hedgehog and devoured, 

 all but the uneatable parts. On looking closely, I found 

 that the head was still alive ; at a touch the antennae 

 those mysterious jointed rods, toothed like a comb at 

 their ends began to wave up and down, and the horns 

 opened wide, like the jaws of an angry crab. On placing 

 a finger between them they nipped it as sharply as if 

 the creature had been whole and uninjured. Yet the 

 body had been long devoured and digested ; and there 

 was only this fragment left, and, torn off with it, shall 

 we say ? a fragment of intelligent life ! 



We always look on this divisibility of the life-principle 

 in some creatures with a peculiar repugnance ; and, like 

 all phenomena that seem to contradict the regular course 

 of nature, it gives a shock to the mind. We do not 

 experience this feeling with regard to plant life, and to 

 the life of some of the lower animal organisms, because 

 we are more familiar with the sight in these cases. The 

 trouble to the mind is in the case of the higher life of 



