Lucifer s and the Poets. 257 



But Cowper represents the nightingale as won over to mercy 

 by the glow-worm's appeal : 



11 ' Did you admire my lamp,' quoth he, 

 1 As much as I your minstrelsy, 

 You would abhor to do me wrong, 

 As much as I to spoil your song ; 

 For 'twas the self-same Power Divine 

 Taught you to sing and me to shine ; 

 That you with music, I with light, 

 Might beautify and cheer the night. 

 The songster heard his short oration, 

 And, warbling out his approbation, 

 Released him." 



Wordsworth sees it offering " nightly sacrifice " to the skies ; 

 and Savage is excellent in his glow-worm's "glimmering 

 through the night, And scattering like hope through fear a 

 doubtful light." For it often seems, when watching " in the 

 grass-green haze the glow-worm's living light," that they are 

 trembling every minute on the point of going out. 



With the necessary differences on account of its being a 

 foreigner, and therefore comparatively unfamiliar, the firefly 

 is virtually a repetition of the glow-worm but on wings. 



Columbus finds (in Rogers's verse), the firefly " spangling 

 the locks of many a maid ; " and, again, the poet familiar 

 with " the shining race in Tuscan groves " sees the Roman 

 Floretta "spangling her hair with stars." In Moore they 

 frequently recur, once in connection with "the favourite 

 tree of that luxurious bird which lights up the chambers of 

 its nest with fireflies ; " and again as used in palace illumina- 

 tion 



" The chambers were supplied with light 



By many strange but safe devices, 

 Large fireflies, such as shine at night 

 Among the Orient's flowers and spices." 



Once upon a time, when I was at large in the United States, 

 I took that wonderful trip from San Francisco to St. Louis 

 by the Texas and Southern Pacific railways. I have notable 



