THE FLY AN OBJECT OF COMPARISON. 191 



with respect to which the calculation is made, the 

 multitude of insects might be double or treble this 

 number, so that on a "low, sandy spit" of incon- 

 siderable dimensions, and in view of the highway, we 

 find animated millions enjoying life, revelling in all 

 the bliss it affords, — endowed with wants, feelings, 

 and instincts ; and, but for the eye of the Entomolo- 

 gist, all these living creatures would have appeared 

 and passed away without one human being ha^^ng 

 been aware of their existence. 



Examples such as this teach us, what pride so 

 often forgets, — that the world is not made for man 

 alone, but that living myriads people each lonely 

 spot, and enjoy the degree and kind of happiness of 

 which they have been rendered capable by their 

 Creator. 



To the poet and the moralist, the fly has not un- 

 frequently furnished a subject for reflection, and an 

 object for comparison. The gaiety which seems in- 

 herent in the life of the insect, has been likened to 

 that which marks the passage of the gay voluptuary, 

 whose thoughts are absorbed by the present, and who 

 heeds not the changes which time will inevitably 

 bring. Impressed with this image. Lord Byron, who, 

 like Shakspeare, has laid bare many of the secret 

 workings of the heart, has thus written : — 



"Childe Harolde basked him in the noontide sun, 

 Disporting: there like any other ily : 



