118 ON THE LUMINOSITY 



venerable Father of Entomology, in this country, having his 

 mind preoccupied with the idea of the luminosity of Fulgora, 

 applied these vague expressions to them. 



I rejoice to hear the author of Sphinx Vespiformis overthrow 

 the reasonings of Rusticus about dead Fulgorce, but he seemed 

 very loth so to do. He wants them to be luminous when 

 dead ; I grant they may be so, and grant there is then, 



" A gilded halo hovering round decay, 

 The farewell beam of beauty past away." 



But it is not immediately after the spirit has fled that this is 

 to be observed. After death, those particles of the body, 

 which the power of the genius of Rhodes has retained in 

 subjection, now no longer subjected to his power, solve those 

 bonds which he had imposed on them, and " Freed from their 

 fetters, they follow with impetuosity, after a long privation, the 

 impulse which leads them to unite themselves ; and the day of 

 death is to them a nuptial feast;" and from the chemical 

 changes which now take place rises a phosphorescent light, 

 which serves as a nuptial torch. 



How can we be justified in ridiculing a fabulous account of 

 an animal in our own country, and believing a fabulous account 

 of another, because it comes from China ? Lery, in his " His- 

 toria Navigationis in Brasiliam quae et America dicitur," has 

 the following passage : — " Caeterum miserrimi nostri Barbari, 

 in hac etiam vita misere ab Cacodaemone torquentur (quem 

 alio nomine Kaagerre vocant) ipse enim eos nonnunquam vidi 

 etiam nobiscum colloquentes protinus instar phreneticorum 

 exclamantes, ' Hei ! Hei ! opem ferte nobis nos enim verberat 

 Aygnam,' immo affirmabant illi Cacodaemonem ab se conspici 

 modo belluae specie, modo avis, modo etiam aliqua portentosa 

 forma. Quia autem magnopere mirabantur nos ab Cacodae- 

 mone non infestari," &c, and this he illustrates with a cut 

 representing the Cacodaemone tormenting the Tououpinam- 

 baultii. Will my friend assert, that although it is perfectly 

 just to ridicule ghost stories in England, we are to believe 

 them when originating with a nation, the name of which is 

 composed not of two but seven syllables, and which, besides, 

 is some few thousands of miles from us. Perhaps as the 

 country of the barbarians, with the name of seven syllables, 

 is not so distant from us as is the Celestial Empire from the 



