Advanced Theories 123 



was a flat piece of marble on which I crushed 

 the Fly-pap after cleaning the heads of game, 

 that is to say, after removing the parts that 

 were too tough, the wings and legs ; lastly, the 

 feeding-spoon was a fine straw, at the tip of 

 which the dish was served, from cell to cell, to 

 each nurseling, which opened its mandibles just 

 as the young birds in the nest might do. I used 

 to go to work in exactly the same way and 

 succeeded no better when bringing up broods 

 of Sparrows, that joy of my childhood. All 

 went well as long as my patience did not fail 

 me, tried as it was by the cares of so finikin 

 and absorbing an education. 



The obscurity of the enigma gives way to 

 the full light of truth thanks to the following 

 observation, made with all the deliberateness 

 which strict precision calls for. In the early 

 days of October, two large clumps of asters in 

 blossom outside the door of my study became 

 the meeting-place of a host of insects, among 

 which the Hive-bee and an Eristalis-fly [EyIs- 

 talis tenax) predominate. A gentle murmur- 

 rose from them, hke that of which Virgil sings : 



ScBpe levi somnum suadehit inire susurro.^ 



But, where the poet finds but an incitement 



1 ' The busy bees, with a soft murmuring strain, 

 Invite to gentle sleep the labouring swain.' — 



Pastorals, i., Dryden's translation. 



