The Modern Theory of Instinct 



Because already Scarabteus and I were 

 friends. Those two lines and a half both- 

 ered me: I thought it a very absurd idea 

 to relegate you to the mire, ye insects so 

 seemly clad, so elegantly groomed. I knew 

 the bronze harness of the Carabus, the Rus- 

 sia-leather jerkin of the Stag-beetle; I knew 

 that the least of you possesses an ebon sheen 

 and gleams of precious metals; and therefore 

 the mire wherein the poet flung you shocked 

 me somewhat. If M. Racine Junior had 

 nothing better to say about you, he might as 

 well have held his tongue; but he did not 

 know you and, in his day, there were only 

 just a few who were beginning to have a dim 

 conception of your nature. 



While going over some passage of the 

 tiresome poem for the next day's lesson, I 

 would indulge my fancy for another kind of 

 education. I visited the Linnet in her nest, 

 on a juniper-bush standing as high as myself; 

 I watched the Jay picking an acorn on the 

 ground; I came upon the Crayfish, still quite 

 soft after shedding his shell; I made enquir- 

 ies as to the exact date when the Cockchafers 

 were due; I went in quest of the first full- 

 blown Cuckoo-flower. Plants and animals, 

 that wondrous poem of which a faint echo 



