EARLY PREJUDICES. 75 



haps, where all is perfection, we should say rather) the most 

 elaborate and certainly the most permanent of insect forms. 



Let it not, however, be supposed that we would give the 

 rein, without restriction, to that spirit of inquiry which chil- 

 dren are so fond of putting into practical exercise upon insects 

 and other living objects. We should no more encourage them 

 to handle a spider or a beetle, harmless as they are, than a 

 wasp or hornet. We would only have them taught to leave 

 the creatures unmolested, by an appeal, as soon as reason and 

 feeling open, to the best, instead of to the worst, of their 

 dawning propensities. To tell- them truly, that by molesting 

 they will cause pain and injury to a harmless little animal, is 

 calling forth their tenderness and self-denial. To tell them 

 falsely, that if touched the insect will cause pain to them, is at 

 once to instil an error, and to excite in them. unnatural anti- 

 pathies and selfish fears. 



To return to the Kose Chafer, of whom our recommendation 

 as a pet was more than half in earnest. We have now our- 

 selves a pair of these pretty insects caged in an open-worked 

 basket, with serious intent to test the extent of their longevity, 

 said by Koesel to have reached, in an individual of his own 

 keeping, to the term (for an insect patriarchal) of three years. 

 As was done by the German naturalist, we supply our captives, 

 in addition to their favourite roses, with fruit and sugared 

 moistened bread, a fare with which they seem by no means 

 disposed to quarrel, any more than with each other, and such 



