4«5 "IHE BLOSSOM EATER, 



The female cantharldis feems to feel the accefs of amo- 

 rous defire in a more violent degree than the male : It is 

 llie that courts the male ; and in the great a£l of fecun- 

 tlation, it is fhe that occupies that place, to which in 

 mofl animals nature dire£ls the other fex. After im- 

 pregnation, Ihe depofits her eggs in the ground, where 

 they remain till they have undergone the various chan- 

 ges that are to bring them forth winged cantharides- 



When collefted and dried, thefe infcfts become fo 

 light, that fifty of them hardly v/eigh a dram ; it is in 

 that ftate they are griiided down into the well known 

 powder, which conllitutes the bafis of the common bHf- 

 tering plaifter. Of the -ither purpofes to which they nave 

 been applied, ignorance is perhaps better than informa- 

 tion; and we freely refign to the annaliils of diffipation, 

 the talk of recording thofe vain attempcs in v/hich they 

 have been employed by the enervated debaiicher to re- 

 flore hi virility,. The enterprifes of love, like the fa- 

 tigues of v.'ar, require certain intervals of reft and tran - 

 quillity, without which neither the lover wor the foldier 

 can take the field without hazarding his reputation *. 



* Militat oniBis amans, ct habet fua caftra cupido, Ovip, 



