MOKAL OF THE GNAT. 73 



provided for so many of us (now his mourners) a rich banquet 

 of animal mirth. A German philosopher has said, that "hap- 

 piness and misfortune stand in continual balance." This is a 

 cheering reflection, and more, it is a fact, continually brought 

 home to our individual experience by the re-action of mental 

 depression and the lively inspirations of hope. 



Let us then, with our Insect model, strive to keep up our 

 buoyancy ; but let us beware of confounding levity with elas- 

 ticity, of mistaking the glare of worldly pleasure for the 

 sunshine of a cheerful heart. Herein also does our little 

 winged philosopher furnish us with a warning as well as 

 an example. lie takes delight in his native atmosphere, 

 in sunshine or in rain; he is neither drowned by the one, 

 nor scorched by the other. But how often when he enters 

 the precincts of artificial life, is he tempted to approach the 

 alluring taper, until, drawn within its fiery vortex, his little 

 life of buoyancy is on a sudden changed to one of torture. 



