OF AN INSECT HUNTER. 31 1 



myself to be standing on the very summit of a hill ; before me 

 lay the future, an interminable diversified region, misty and 

 indistinct. I turned me, and looked back on the past — it was a 

 bright, a sunny, and a goodly landscape. I gazed thereon with 

 pleasure. Reader, dost thou ask why the past was to me so 

 much more brilliant than the future ? I will tell thee : with me 

 the present is blessed and sanctified by content. He that 

 pursues his path in feverish excitement, in discontented 

 drudgery, feasting his imagination with dazzling views of 

 future glory, will never look back on such a life as mine. He 

 may attain the summit of his hopes, but he will attain it merely 

 to find that it is utterly unworthy the sacrifices he has made in 

 its pursuit. He will look back on the past as on a scene of 

 desolation, and the tinsel glitter of the future he will find is 

 tarnished. 



As this, my first chapter, is drawing to a close, it may be 

 well to explain who and what I am. The anonymous is used 

 by an author for the same purpose as a veil by a woman : it 

 enables him to be a little more pert than he would otherwise 

 think quite decorous ; and, moreover, it excites a degree of 

 curiosity which insures observation. The anonymous is seldom 

 employed for concealment. The author of Pelham would be 

 mortified at not being known as the author of Pelham. The 

 author of the Letters of Delta would be cut to the quick if he 

 heard a whisper that another laid claim to his inimitable 

 vapouring about South America. The anonymous therefore I 

 must preserve, at the same time taking especial care to make 

 myself known lest I should hereafter have to complain that 



Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores. 



Who and what I am I will therefore tell you — by-and-bye. 



Chapter II. 



[The Insect- Hunter meeteth with a companion ; they discourse ; they jour- 

 ney together to Darenih ; the Insect-Hunter discloseth a portion of his 

 history.] 



The next morning, whilst breakfasting, I received a visit 

 from a brother of the net, a worthy man, with whom I have 



