264 SUMMER. 



of her Maker ! And just at that time just in the wane 

 of that momentary repose which, in a northern country, 

 one cannot call night you may witness some crea- 

 tures upon which the sun never shines, some tiny flies 

 coming out of their pupar cases, which are all destined 

 to die before the sun, which is now dissolving the as- 

 cending clouds over you, appears in the horizon. By 

 the pool or the brook, too, you will find the gnat, hav- 

 ing forgotten her song with which she wearied the night, 

 and her thirst for blood, which is probably given to her 

 as a stimulant for the last and grand effort of her life, 

 perched on a floating straw, or leaf, or a bit of duck- 

 weed, and playing the boat builder with untaught and 

 therefore inimitable skill, and a perseverance even to 

 the death. That little colony which she commits to 

 the waters, and which is a true life boat, as it is full of 

 life, and yet will neither sink nor be wetted, is at once 

 her legacy and her monument ; and when it is com- 

 pleted, she merely flutters through the air for a few 

 feet, drops lifeless upon the water, and unites with that 

 mass of matter out of which germs are to elaborate 

 their coming forms. It is a singular fact in the natural 

 history of insects, and it seems so common to them all, 

 and so restricted to them and those plants that we call 

 annual, that one sexual appulse and one reproduction 

 should be the whole purpose of their lives ; and that if 

 this be prevented, their lives may be prolonged indefi- 

 nitely, and greatly beyond the natural period. So 

 that, in the most trifling things, we see that it is an 

 emanation of Almighty power by which creation works ; 

 and that, for the accomplishment of her end, she can, 

 in that which, as a whole, is but as a grain of dust, 



