GOSSAMER AND SILK 



THE HOP-BINE 

 BRIDGING 



heat and cold which occur but now and 

 then and are forgotten. But these few excep- 

 tional days kill off the silkworms which might 

 else flourish exceedingly. 



Probably the silkworm has taught more 

 natural history than any animal there is. It 

 has been cultivated for four thousand years or 

 more for the production of an article that all 

 this while has been the most popular and 

 valuable of stuffs. The regular progressive 

 changes of insects through their several forms, 

 each singularly unlike the other, make one of the cardinal 

 wonders of a very wonderful world. Indeed as we descend 

 in the scale of life the miracle of life seems to increase in 

 strangeness. Yet to the most learned, even to the most 

 scientifically learned, some of the common plans of natural 

 history are often unsuspected. There is a most delightful 

 passage in an essay of Fabre's, who, if the superlative may 

 be permitted, was the very best writer on insects and spiders 

 that ever lived. Apart from his acute powers of inference, 

 working on the closest observations, he plunged into his 

 subject with a relish that influences every word he writes. 



Well, M. Fabre was astonished one day in his humble 

 house by a call from the great Pasteur ; and the following 

 dialogue took place : 



1 A few words were exchanged on the prevailing blight ; 



