198 LOCUST. 



but dirty without ; in this they continue for a fortnight 

 longer, after which they burst from their confinement per- 

 fectly formed, and armed with powers to disturb the peace 

 of an emperor. 



THE LOCUST. 



THIS insect is about three inches long, and has two 

 horns or feelers an inch in length. The head and horns 

 are of a brownish colour ; it is blue about the mouth, as 

 also on the inside of the larger legs. The shield that 

 covers the back is greenish, and the upper side of the body 

 brown, spotted with black, and the under side purple. 

 The upper wings are more transparent, and of a light 

 brown, tinctured with green, but there is a dark cloud of 

 spots near the tips. This is that insect that has threatened 

 us so often with its visitations, and that is so truly terrible 

 in those countries where it is bred. There is no animal in 

 the creation that multiplies so fast as these, if the sun be 

 w : arm, and the soil in which their eggs are deposited be 

 dry. Happily for us, the coldness of our climate, and the 

 humidity of our soil, are no way favourable to their pro- 

 duction ; and as they are but the animals of a year, they 

 visit us and perish. 



The Scripture, which was written in a country where the 

 locust made a distinguished feature in the picture of nature, 

 has given us several very striking images of this animal's 

 numbers and rapacity. It compares an army, where the 

 numbers are almost infinite, to a swarm of locusts; it 

 describes them as rising out of the earth, where they are 

 produced; as pursuing a settled march to destroy the fruits 

 of the earth, and co-operation with Divine indignation. 



"When the locusts take the field, we are assured, they 

 have a leader at their head, whose flight they observe, and 

 pay a strict attention to all hi$ motions. They appear at a 

 distance like a black cloud, which, as it approaches, 

 gathers upon the horizon, and almost hides the light of 

 day. It often happens that the husbandman sees this im- 

 minent calamity pass away without doing him any mischief, 

 and the whole swarm proceed onward to settle upon the 

 labours of some les.s fortunate country. But wretched is 

 the district upon which they settle : they ravage the 



