AND IN THE CLASSICS. 193 



the source of ideas, which many would deem even 

 more interesting. 



You vnH readily caU to mind passages from the 

 classics, in which these diminutive beings are brought 

 forward. Nay, occasionally, they are mentioned 

 amid circumstances, which at first sight seem, by 

 their importance, to forbid the introduction of " such 

 small deer." Of this kind, is that passage in the 

 "Agamemnon" of ^schylus, where Clytemnestra is 

 reciting to her lord, who has returned triumphant 

 from the siege of Troy, her " melancholy life" during 

 his absence : — 



" At thy return, 



The gushing fountains of my tears are dried. 



Save that my eyes are weak with midnight watchings, 



Straining, thro' tears, if haply they might see 



Thy signal tires, that claim'd ray fixM attention. 



If they were closed in sleep, a silly fly 



Would, with its slightest murm'rings, make me start. 



And wake me to more fears." 



Potter's Tramlation, p. 189. 



On Virgil's instructions for generating swarms of 

 bees from the 



"putrid gore of oxen slain,"— (Gcor^/r. IV.) 

 I have thought it unnecessary to make any comment, 

 some species of flies busy about the fermenting car- 

 case, having obviously been mistaken for bees. 



I must now call your attention to the annoyance 

 which flies in warm climates occasionally become. 



