36 COCOON OF THE SILKWORM. 



Valentine. And \^Titers say, as the most forward bud 

 Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, 

 Even so by love, the youn^ and tender wit 

 Is turn'd to folly : blasting in the bud, 

 Losing his verdure even in the prime." — Act I. Sc. 1. 



The hirvce yet mentioned are all of them destruc- 

 tive in some degree to our property, either to that 

 species of property comprised in the vegetable king- 

 dom, or that w^hich constitutes the raiment of our 

 persons, or the furniture of our apartments ; and so 

 far they are all represented as injurious to man. 

 One, however, is casually introduced, whose labours 

 may be considered as outweighing, by the advantages 

 they produce, the injuries which all the others may 

 occasionally inflict. It is the larva of a moth. 

 The produce of its cocoon was at one period con- 

 sidered so valuable, as to be estimated in Imperial 

 Rome at its weight in gold, and even now it gives 

 employment to many thousand individuals, and forms 

 an important branch of our national manufactures. 

 You no doubt suspect already that the insect to 

 which I allude is the silkworm. OtheUo, in the cele- 

 brated scene where he demands " the handkerchief," 

 venerated as the dying gift of his mother, and en- 

 dowed with supernatural virtues by " an Egyptian," 

 mentions the insect thus : — 



" The worms were hallow'd that did breed the silk." 



Act III. Sc. IV. 



