The Life of the Spider 



more than any other, is obliged to take it by 

 the forelock. Preoccupied as I was with other 

 researches, I but gave a glance at the mag- 

 nificent subject which good fortune offered. 

 The opportunity fled and has never returned. 



Let us make up for it with trivial things of 

 frequent encounter, a condition favourable to 

 consecutive study. What is common is not 

 necessarily unimportant. Give it our sus- 

 tained attention and we shall discover in it 

 merits which our former ignorance prevented 

 us from seeing. When patiently entreated, 

 the least of creatures adds its note to the har- 

 monies of life. 



In the fields around, traversed, in these 

 days, with a tired step, but still vigilantly 

 explored, I find nothing so often as the 

 Labyrinth Spider (Agelena labyrinthica, 

 CLERCK. ) . Not a hedge but shelters a few 

 at its foot, amid the grass, in quiet, sunny 

 nooks. In the open country and especially in 

 hilly places laid bare by the woodman's axe, 

 the favourite sites are tufts of bracken, rock- 

 rose, lavender, everlasting and rosemary 

 cropped close by the teeth of the flocks. This 

 is where I resort, as the isolation and kind- 

 liness of the supports lend themselves to pro- 

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