100 INSECTS. 



and apprehension of all who are not familiarised with their presence. 

 The largest species met with in this country is 



The Forked Centipede (Lithobius forficatus) ;* it is found in the 

 earth and under stones in our gardens, and is quick and active in 

 its movements. It does not measure more than an inch and a quar- 

 ter in length, and is of a tawny red colour, with fifteen feet on each 

 side. 



The Electric Scolopendra (Scolopendra electrica), likewise a British 

 species, is occasionally luminous in the dark. 



CHAPTER XL 



INSECTS (Insecta f). 



HAVE patience with us, gentle reader -our task is no 

 light one. To mete out the sands upon the sea- 

 shore with a quart pot, to drain the ocean with a 

 thimble, to count the stars, are ordinary expressions 

 for impossibilities; but to condense the history of 

 the Insect world into a few short pages, would be a 

 miracle beyond them all. The number of species of 

 insects, as we are told by entomologists, amounts to 

 upwards of a hundred thousand ; so various in their 

 habits and their manners, their instincts and their 

 appetites, that every species would itself furnish a 

 large volume of interesting information, could we 

 only penetrate the mysteries of their lives; and 

 yet how little has been done in gaining anything 

 like an intimate acquaintance with their daily duties, 

 by a careful and watchful perusal of their economy. 

 The secrecy of creation, however, is not to be rudely 

 broken. Nature is a very coy mistress; watchful 

 nights, anxious days, slender meals, and endless 

 labours must be the lot of all those who pursue her 

 through her labyrinths and meanders ; nor will she 

 ever confess to violence, what she is ready freely to 

 disclose to patient and attentive solicitation. See 

 the amateur entomologist, furnished with his nets 

 and boxes, and all the adjuncts invented by art for 



* Aiflos, lithos, a stone ; fti6<a, bioo, I live because it lives under 

 stones. 



t Insectum, divided into segments. 



