THE SPIDER AND ITS HANDI-WOEK. 



It may seem stkange to say, but such 

 is the fact — that the Spider, although called 



so, is not an Insect. 



Spiders are not arranged by Naturalists 

 with insects, properly so called, but occupy 

 a place between crabs, lobsters, &c, or crus- 

 taceous animals, and those now designated 

 as insects. The position thus allotted to 

 them is just, from a consideration of their 

 physical structure. They have no antennae, 

 those flexile appendages somewhat resemb- 

 ling horns, which may be observed in the 

 butterfly ; and which have been supposed, 

 by various authors, to be organs of hearing, 

 of smell, of feeling, or of some unknown 

 sense, although the opinion that they are 

 organs of touch, is that now generally re- 

 ceived. Spiders, on their liberation from 

 the egg, are perfectly formed, although very 

 minute, and they do not, like insects, undergo 

 transformations. Many of them breathe 

 through lungs, and hence their respiratory 

 apparatus forms another ground of distinc- 

 tion. Still, as we are, in common parlance, 

 in the habit of speaking of them as insects, 

 a slight notice of their habits cannot be alto- 

 gether out of place. 



They are all predaceous, and live upon 

 small insects, which they are able to over- 

 come. This is effected, however, in very 

 different ways. Some spin the webs, which 

 are the abhorrence of all tidy housekeepers ; 

 others construct those nets which, when, 

 glittering in the morning sun, and bright as 

 the dew-drops by which they are sur- 

 rounded, every one has at some time or other 

 regarded with admiration ; others do not take 

 the trouble of weaving, but, choosing a 

 place of concealment, " in ambush wait" the 

 approach of their unsuspecting prey. It is, 

 probably, of this kind, that the Prisoner of 

 Chillon speaks, when he says — 



" With spiders I had friendship made, 

 And watch'd them in their sullen trade." 



Another tribe, distinguished by the appro- 

 priate name of " Hunters," are for ever 

 roaming about, " seeking whom they may 

 devour." The singular habits of the Arach- 

 nidce, but more especially of those which 

 construct nets for the capture of their insect 

 food, have in all ages attracted attention; 

 and the natural sympathy we feel in seeing 

 the weak overcome and destroyed by a foe 

 too powerful for them to oppose, and which 

 unites stratagem to strength, has caused the 

 spider to be considered as 



" cunning and fierce, 



Mixture abborr'd." 



I shall not lose time by endeavoring to vin- 

 dicate its character, convinced that nobody 

 will deem any animal cruel, which exercises 



for its support those instincts with which it 

 has been endowed by its Creator ; but shall 

 proceed to direct my readers' attention to 

 some of those passages in which Shakspeare 

 evinces his knowledge of the habits of 

 spiders, and his cognisance of the general 

 feeling of mankind concerning them. 



When, in the " Merchant of Venice," 

 Bassanio has opened the leaden casket con- 

 taining " fair Portia's counterfeit," and is 

 giving vent to the admiration which so ex- 

 cellent a delineation of her beauty excites, 

 his words allude to the destruction which the 

 spider's web promotes : — 



" Here, in her hairs, 



The painter plays the spider, and hath Avoven 

 A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men 

 Paster than gnats in cobwebs." — Act iii. sc. 2. 



To the same insect, Plantagenet compares 

 the state of his own mind : — 



" My brain, more busy than the laboring spider, 

 Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies." 

 Second Part King Henry VI., act iii. sc. 1. 



The epithets u laboring" and " tedious," are 

 applied with peculiar felicity, for they denote 

 the protracted labors, the industry and per- 

 severance, evinced in the fabrication of the 

 snare. 



When Queen Margaret is hurling impre- 

 cations on her enemies, she is turned from 

 her encounter with Gloster, by a remark 

 made by the Queen : and while a pitying 

 spirit seems for a moment to supplant her 

 rage, she addresses her successor in the 

 words— 



" Poor, painted Queen ! vain flourish of my 

 fortune ! 

 Why strewest thou sugar on that bottled 



spider, 

 Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?" 

 Richard III., act i. sc. 3. 



In another part of the same play, the epi- 

 thet " bottled," is again applied in a similar 

 manner : — 



" That bottled spider, that foul hunchback'd 

 toad." — Act iv. sc. 4. 



And in both instances we may suppose it is 

 used on account of the peculiar shape of the 

 spider's body. 



The weakness of the web is almost pro- 

 verbial : hence it is employed by Job, in 

 speaking of the hypocrite — " Whose trust 

 shall be a spider's web" (c. viii. v. 14). 



In a similar signification it has been most 

 appropriately employed by Young — - 



" The spider's most attenuated thread 

 Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie 

 On earthly bliss ; it breaks at every breeze." 

 Night Thoughts, Night 1. 



In foreign countries, instances very much 

 the reverse of this might be brought for- 

 ward ; for the threads spun by spiders form 



