THE LOCUST. 146 



we shall only in general terms observe, that in contemplating the 

 commonwealth of bees, and viewing the exactness of their police, 

 the regularity of their civil and domestic economy, the activity 

 and assiduity of their industrious exertions, and, above all, the 

 geometrical exactness with which they fabricate the honey-comb, 

 and construct their cells, scepticism itself can scarcely avoid dis- 

 covering the agency of an Almighty hand, in directing their va 

 rious and wonderful operations. 



Among the innumerable tribes of insects which swarm in the 

 earth and the air, we shall only mention one more in particular, 

 which, from its being so frequently the subject of scriptural al 

 lusion, we cannot entirely omit. This is 



THE LOCUST, 



Of which the sacred writings give such terrific descriptions 

 The scriptures, being written in a country where the locust made 

 a prominent figure in the picture of Nature, have exhibited 

 striking views of multitudinous numbers, and dreadful rapacity 

 In the Old Testament, an invading army, whose multitudes ap- 

 pear innumerable, and every where carry terror and desolation, 

 is generally compared to a swarm of locusts; and these de- 

 structive insects are often represented as the instruments of di- 

 vine vengeance. 



This winged insect, of which the devastating voracity has in 

 many countries been too often experienced, is a larger species 

 of the grasshopper genus. It is about three inches long, and has 

 two horns, or feelers, of about one inch. The head and horns 

 are of a brownish colour: it is blue about the mouth, and on the 

 inside of the larger legs. The shield that covers the back 

 is greenish ; the upper side of the body, brown spotted with 

 black; and the under side, purple. The upper wings are of a 

 dusky brown, the under wings of a lighter brown, and tinctured 

 with green, and more transparent, with a cloud of dark spots 

 near the tips. No animal in the creation multiplies so rapidly 

 as these, in a warm climate and a dry soil; for there its eggs 

 are safely deposited, and speedily hatched by the heat of the sun. 



When the locusts make their destructive invasions, they ap- 

 pear at a distance like a black cloud gathering in the horizon, 

 which, as it approaches, almost hides the face of day. Some- 

 times tiie husbandman sees this imminent danger pass over head 

 without doing him any mischief; and the whole swarm proceeds 

 forward to settle upon some less fortunate country; and 

 wretched is the place where they alight ! Every trace of vege- 

 tation immediately disappears; the visitation of a ^ew minutes 

 destroys the expectations of a year; every thing that grows is 

 immediately devoured, and nothing but barren desolation 'eft 

 15 ' N 



