394 INSECTS. 



All the various season's treasures, 



All the products of the plains, 

 Thus lie open to thy pleasures, 



Fav'rite of the rural swains. 



On thee the Muses fix their choice, 



And Phoebus adds his own. 

 Who first inspir'd thy lively voice 



And tun'd the pleasing tone. 



Thy cheerful note in wood and vale 



Fills every heart with glee ; 

 And summer smiles in double charms 



While thus proclaim'd by thee. 



Like gods canst thou the nectar sip, 



A lively chirping elf; 

 From labour free, and free from care, 



A little god thyself!" 



There is also a very pleasing and elegant tale*, related by an- 

 cient authors, of two rival + musicians alternately playing for a 

 prize ; when one of the candidates was so unfortunate as to break a 

 string of his lyre ; by which accident he would certainly have 

 failed ; when a cicada, flying near, happened to settle on his lyre, 

 and by its own note supplied the defective string, and thus enabled 

 the favoured candidate to overcome his antagonist. So remark- 

 able was the event, that a statue was erected to perpetuate the 

 memory of it, in which a man is represented playing on a lyre, on 

 which sits a cicada. 



Notwithstanding these romantic attestations in favour of the 

 cicada, it is certain that modern ears are offended rather than 

 pleased with its voice, which is so very strong and stridulous that 

 it fatigues by its incessant repetition ; and a single cicada hung up 

 in a cage has been found almost to drown the voice of a whole 

 company. 



It is to be observed that the male cicada alone exerts this power- 



* See Antiq. mirab. narrat. lib. i. Strab. geogr. lib. 6. 

 + Viz. Eunomus of Locris, and Aristo of Rhegium. 



