6 THE INSECTS AS PKOPEIETORS. 



own fetters of subjection ; and now, in these autumn days of 

 royalty, when diadems have fallen, and some, like autumn 

 leaves, are trembling, we must perhaps say still, as was said 

 even while monarchy was in her summer prime, 



" Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown !" 



To return now to our insect monarchs of the tree and of 

 the grass : 



" All the fields which thou dost see, 

 All the plants belong to thee ! 

 All that summer hours produce, 

 Fertile made with early juice ; 

 Man for thee doth sow and plough, 

 Farmer he, and landlord thou !" 



In the undisputed range of their several territories, whether 

 of foliage or of grass, our two appropriators may be reckoned 

 much upon a par ; though he of the tree can certainly, from 

 his loftier position, boast of a wider and more absolute com- 

 mand. For this reason (considering both as kings) King Tree- 

 hopper may be also, if not the happier, the safer of the two. 

 As for the labours of man being made subservient to the 

 insect's use, this certainly is a distinction which belongs much 

 more properly to the grasshopper, the " landlord," if you will, 

 of our meadows and our corn-fields, until at midsummer, or 

 in harvest (his position reversed) he finds himself a tenant, 

 forcibly ejected at the point of scythe or sickle. 



" Thou dost innocently joy, 

 Nor does thy luxury destroy." 



