C0LE0PTERA — BEETLES. 245 



would have been too glaring a deviation from Nature 

 in a story, intended to enlist purely human sym- 

 pathies ; Avhile the ingenious device of substituting 

 the act of swimming for that of flying, at once 

 preserves the analogy, and by its probability secures 

 the sympathies of the reader. 



As the ground-work for the conclusion of the 

 story, we may conceive that on the approach of a 

 sudden storm, a female Glow-worm, as instinct 

 teaches her, withdraws her light; and on the fol- 

 lowing morning it is easy to imagine that some 

 shepherd, leading his flock back to their pastures 

 after the tempestuous night, and finding a male 

 Glow-worm lying with out-spread wings, drenched 

 and drowned by the way-side, would be led to con- 

 clude that the poor insect had fallen a victim to his 

 daring and his constancy, and while disregarding 

 the dangers of the tempest had fallen a victim to 

 his ill-timed devotion. Here Ave seem to have the 

 prototype of the catastrophe which occurred to 

 Leander ; the lamp trimmed by his love ex- 

 tinguished in the storm, and he, no longer guided by 

 the beacon-light, perishing miserably among the 

 breakers of the rugged shore of the Hellespont. 



We have thus completed the companion picture 

 to that of the story of Psyche, though occupying a 



