IN AN OLD GARDEN 209 



pillars, too, in great plenty miniature porcupines 

 with fretful quills on end, and some naked even as 

 they came into the world* This one, called the 

 earth-measurer, has drunk himself green with 

 chlorophyll so as to escape detection* Vain precau- 

 tion ! since eccentric motion betrays him to keen 

 avian eyes, when, like the traveller's snake, he erects 

 himself on the tip of his tail and sways about in empty 

 space, vaguely feeling for something, he knows not 

 what* And the mechanical tortrix that rolls up 

 a leaf for garment and food, and preys on his own 

 case and shelter until he has literally eaten himself 

 stark naked ; after which he rolls up a second leaf, 

 and so on progressively* Thus in his larval life does 

 he symbolize some restless nation that makes itself 

 many successive constitutions and forms of govern- 

 ment, in none of which it abides long ; but afterwards 

 some higher thing, when he rests motionless, in 

 form like a sarcophagus, whence the infolded life 

 emerges to haunt the twilight a grey ghost moth* 

 There is no end to rolled-up leaves, and to the 

 variety of creatures that are housed in them ; for, 

 just as the " insect tribes of human kind " in all 

 places and in all ages, while seeking to improve their 

 condition, independently hit on the same means and 

 inventions, so it is with these small six-legged people ; 

 and many species in many places have found out 

 the comfort and security of the green cylinder. 



