194 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jot.* 



of contemplating what they were about, and this 

 for many days together, without giving them the 

 least disturbance. 



Under the microseope, the base of the flower 

 extended itself to a vast plain ; the slender stems 

 ©f the leaves became trunks of so many stately ce- 

 dars ; the threads in the middle seemed columns 

 of massy structure, supporting at the top their 

 several ornaments ; and the narrow spaces between 

 "were enlarged into walks, parterres and terraces. 

 On the polished bottom of these, brighter than 

 Parian marble, walked in pairs, alone, or in larger 

 companies, the winged inhabitants : these, from 

 little dusky flies, for such only the naked eye 

 would have shown them, were raised to glorious, 

 glittering animals, stained with living purple, and 

 with a glossy gold that would have made all the 

 labors of the loom contemptible in the comparison. 

 I could, at leisure, as they walked together, ad- 

 mire their elegant limbs, their velvet shoulders, 

 and their silken wings ; their backs vieing with 

 the empyrean in its hue ; and their eyes, each 

 formed of a thousand others, outglittering the lit- 

 tle planes in a brilliant. I could observe them 

 here, singling out their favorite females, courting 

 them with the music of their buzzing wings, with 

 little songs formed for their little organs, leading 

 them from walk to walk among the perfumed 

 shades, and pointing out to their taste the drop of 

 liquid nectar just bursting from some vein within 

 the living trunk ; here were the perfumed groves, 

 the more than myrtle shades of the poet's fancy 

 realized ; here the happy lovers spent their days 

 in joyful dalliance ; — in the triumph of their little 

 hearts, skipt after one another from stem to stem 

 among the painted trees, or winged their short 

 flight to the close shadow of some broader leaf, to 

 revel undisturbed in the heights of all felicity. 



Nature, the God of nature, has proportioned the 

 period of existence of every creature to the means 

 of its support. Duration, perhaps, is as much a 

 comparative quality as magnitude ; and these at- 

 oms of being, as they appear to us, may have or- 

 gans that lengthen minutes, to their perception, 

 into years. In a flower destined to remain but a 

 few days, length of life, according to our ideas, 

 could not be given to its inhabitants ; but it may 

 be according to theirs. I saw, in the course of 

 observation of this new world, several succeeding 

 generations of the creatures it was peopled with ; 

 they passed, under my eye, through the several 

 successive stages of the egg and the reptile form 

 in a few hours. After these, they burst forth at 

 an instant into full growth and perfection in their 

 wing-form. In this they enjoyed their span of 

 being, as much as we do years — feasted, sported, 

 revelled in delights ; fed on the living fragrance 

 that poured itself out at a thousand openings at 



once befoye them } enjoyed their loves, laid the 

 foundation for their succeeding progeny, and after 

 a life thus happily filled up, sunk in an easy dis- 

 solution With what joy in their pleasures did I 

 attend the first and the succeeding broods through 

 the full period of their joyful lives I With what 

 enthusiastic transport did I address to each of 

 these yet happy creatures Anacreon's gratulation 

 to the cicada : 



Blissful insect 1 what can he, 



3n happiness, compared to thee ? 



Fed with nourishment divine, 



The dewy morning's sweetest wine, 



Nature wans upon th.ee still, 



And thy fragrant cup does fll}. 



All the fields that thou dost see ; 



All the plants belong to thee ; 



All that summer hoars produce., 



Fertile made with ripening juice. 



Man for thee does sow and plow,, 



Farmer he, and landlord thou. 



Thee the hinds with gladness hear, 



Prophet of the ripen 'd year ! 



To thee alone, of all the earth, 



L jfe is no longer than thy mirth. 



Happy creature '. happy, thou 



Dost neither age nor winter know ; 



But when thou'st drank, and danc'd, and sang 



Thy fill, the flowery leaves among, 



Sated with the glorious feast, 



Thou retirest to endless rest. 



While the pure, contemplative mind thus al- 

 most envies what the rude observer would treat 

 unfeelingly, it naturally shrinks into itself on the 

 thought that there may be, in the immense chain 

 of beings, many, though as invisible to us as we 

 to the inhabitants of this little flower — whose or- 

 gans are not made for comprehending objects 

 larger than a mite, or more distant than a straw's 

 breadth— to whom we may appear as much below 

 regard as they to us. 



With what derision should we treat those little 

 reasoners, could we hear them arguing for the un- 

 limited duration of the carnation, destined for the 

 extent of their knowledge, as well as their action I 

 And yet, among ourselves, there are reasoners 

 who argue, on no better foundation, that the earth 

 which we inhabit is eternal." 



Raise the Calves. — We have said it before, 

 and say it again, that the common practice of sell- 

 ing our calves to the butcher, is one of the poor- 

 est pieces of farm husbandry ever practiced. Not 

 that every small farmer who may have one or two 

 can profitably raise them, but that every farmer 

 who has the keeping, or any legitimate way of get- 

 ting it, should keep his calves until they are two 

 or three years old. We do not advocate the keep- 

 ing of any more stock than can be well kept. 

 Very many of our farmers, by selling their calves, 

 have let their stock run out, so does the farm also. 

 Now we want such ones to turn over a new leaf. 

 Commence the raising of your calves. They will 

 gradually increase your stock, and as your stock 

 increases in numbers, so will your fields in fertil- 

 ity. — Michigan Farmer. 



