THE GRASSHOPPER AS A SYMBOL. 19 



locust, we shall perceive the closeness of their analogy to three 

 several classes of worldly pleasure-seekers. 



First, there is the grasshopper, which we look upon as a 

 playful, harmless creature; and so, by comparison, he is. 

 His appetite is not vitiate and depraved, like that of his house- 

 bred cousin, Cricket, nor inordinately rapacious, like that of 

 the wide destroyer, Locust. He and his enjoyments are 

 simply rustic, and, as such, comparatively pure ; but still he is 

 a mere creature of idle pleasure. His life is neither a pattern 

 nor a type of anything beyond low animal enjoyment. He 

 labours to no prospective end, like the ant and the bee ; al- 

 though possessed of wings, he rises to no aerial flights, like 

 the beetle and the butterfly. His active powers are exerted 

 chiefly to satisfy his appetite or escape immediate danger, and, 

 unlike those winged insects which were once but worms, he 

 ends existence in a form but slightly altered from that in 

 which it was begun. 



These dwellers in the grass are no unfitting representatives 

 of a multitude of dwellers in the country. 



Of what description may these be ? 



It needs not to specify their usual callings or positions in 

 society. We shall simply ask if there are not, among country 

 residents, a large proportion of harmless, sociable, good sort of 

 people, who are, nevertheless, mere lovers of pleasure, inasmuch 

 as they live only for the gratification of the moment ; persons 

 who, dwelling in the midst of all that is fresh, and green, and 



