14 LECTURE VII. 



sleeps great part of the summer ; for it goes to 

 bed in the longest days at four in the afternoon, 

 and often does not stir in the morning till late. 

 Besides, it retires to rest for every shower, and 

 does not move at all in wet days. When one 

 reflects on the state of this strange being, it is 

 a matter of wonder that Providence should bestow 

 such a seeming waste of longevity on a reptile 

 that appears to relish it so little as to squander 

 away more than two thirds of its existence in 

 a joyless stupor, and be lost to all sensation for 

 months together in the profoundest of all slum- 

 bers ! Though he loves warm weather, he avoids 

 the hot sun; because his thick shell, when once 

 heated, would, as the poet says of solid armour, 

 < scald with safety. 9 He therefore spends the more 

 sultry hours under the umbrella of a large cabbage- 

 leaf, or amidst the waving forests of an asparagus 

 bed. But as he avoids heat in the summer, so in 

 the decline of the year, he improves the faint 

 autumnal beams by getting within the reflection 

 of a fruit-tree wall ; and though he has never read 

 that planes inclining to the horizon receive a 

 greater share of warmth, he inclines his shell by 

 tilting it against the wall, to collect and admit 

 every feeble ray. 1 ' 



