DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 63 
And now, which seems to you the greatest terror, that the forest should 
resound with the roar of the lion or the tiger, or with the hum of the 
gnat ? Which evil is the most to be deprecated, the neighbourhood of these 
ferocious animals, terrible as they are for their cruelty and strength, or to 
live amidst the polar or tropical myriads of mosquitos, and be subject to 
the torture of their incessant attacks? When you consider that from the 
one, prudence and courage may secure or defend us without any material 
sacrifice of our daily comforts; while to be at rest from the other, we 
must either render ourselves disgusting by filthy unguents, or be suffocated 
by fumigations, or be content to be bound, head, hand, and foot, shut out 
from the respiration of the common air, and even thus scarcely escape 
from their annoyance; you will feel convinced that the former is the more 
tolerable evil of the two, and be inclined to think that those cities, from 
which the lions were driven away by the more powerful gnats, were no 
great gainers by the exchange. With what grateful hearts ought the pri- 
vileged inhabitants of these happy islands to acknowledge and glorify the 
goodness of that kind Providence which has distinguished us from the 
less favoured nations of the globe, by what may be deemed an immunity 
from this tormenting pest! for the inroads which they make on our 
comfort, when contrasted with what so many other people of every climate 
suffer from them, are mere nothing, When we behold on one side of us 
the ravages of the wide-wasting sword, on another those of infectious 
disease or pestilence, on a third famine destroying its myriads, and on a 
fourth life rendered uncomfortable by the terror of “ noisome beasts,” and 
the attack of noxious insects; and when we look at home and sce every 
one eating his bread in peace, protected in his enjoyments by equal laws 
without fearing the sword of the oppressor ; not scourged by pestilence or 
famine, exposed to the attack of no ferocious animal, and comparatively 
speaking but slightly visited by the annoyance of insect tormentors ; and 
especially when we further reflect that it is his merey and not our merits 
which has induced him thus to overwhelm us with blessings, while other 
countries have been made to drink deep of the cup of his fury, we shall 
see reason for an increased degree of thankfulness and gratitude, and, 
instead of repining, be well content with our lot, though our offences 
have not wholly been passed over, and we have been “beaten with few 
Stripes.” 
Besides the insects that seek to make us their food, there are others 
which, although we are apt to regard them with the greatest horror, do 
not attack us with this view, but usually to revenge some injury which 
they have received, or apprehend from us. Foremost in the list of these 
are those with four wings, which, according to the observation of Pliny 
hefore quoted, carry their weapon, an instrument of revenge, in their ¢ai/. 
OO 
Senerally found to harbour gnats, are, on this account, banished from the neighbour- 
hood of dwelling houses in America and other hot countries, to the great loss of the 
Hi in other respects; but I have been informed by a friend that at Trieste it 
has een observed that horse-chestnut trees planted near a house, so far from en- 
ouraging gnats, drive them away, none ever appearing in houses surrounded with 
these trees, though abundant where other kinds prevail, a fact which, if confirmed in 
other countries, would be well worth acting upon, 
1 Mouffet, 8). 
