252 The Poets and Natitre. 



As it was, the poets' only glimpses of nature's ingenuity 

 in lightening the darkness was " the earth-wandering star " 

 (the glow-worm), and the " traveller's friend " (the firefly). 

 Yet each in its small sphere is an exquisite touch. Indeed, 

 among the prettier devices of nature must take high rank 

 the " impassioned light " (as Darwin calls it) which the glow- 

 worm holds out to tell her winged Leander the way across 

 pathless wastes to her bower. It is true the Leander himself 

 sometimes shows a faint sympathy of incandescence; but 

 such luminosity is not more regular than beards on women's 

 chins. The privilege of shining belongs to the fair sex alone. 



" When evening closes nature's eye, 

 The glow-worm lights her little spark 

 To captivate her favourite fly, 

 And tempt the rover in the dark. 



Conducted by a sweeter star 



Than all that deck the fields above, 



He fondly hastens from afar 



To soothe her solitude and love." Montgomery. 



" Innocent as is the light 

 The glow-worm hangs out to allure 

 Her mate to her green bower at night." 



No one who has watched the insect on its grassy bank can 

 have failed to notice that its light seems green. 



" The fireflies played around the pillared stems, 

 And bore about their lanterns of green light, 

 Advancing and receding while the eye 

 Measured by them the depth of sylvan gloom." Faber. 



Some poets, however, call it " silvery," which it surely never 

 is ; others " golden," which it only sometimes is ; and one, 

 Eliza Cook, * has " azure ray." 



Shelley's "like a glow-worm golden, In a dell of dew " is, 

 like everything of Shelley's, exquisite. His admiration of 

 night and the natural features of night is always eminently 



1 Did she get the idea from Charlotte Smith's " sapphire beam" of the 

 firefly? 



