OF SELBORNE. 327 



if the spiders have a power of coiling and 

 thickening their webs in the air, as Dr. 

 Lister says they have [see his Letters to 

 Mr. Raif], then, when they were become 

 heavier than the air, they must fall. 



Every day in fine weather, in Autumn 

 chiefly, do I see those spiders shooting out 

 their webs and mounting aloft : they will 

 go off from your finger if you will take 

 them into your hand. Last Summer one 

 alighted on my book as I was reading in 

 the parlour ; and, running to the top of the 

 page, and shooting out a web, took its 

 departure from thence. But what I most 

 wondered at was, that it went off with con- 

 siderable velocity in a place where no air 

 was stirring ; and I am sure that I did not 

 assist it with my breath. So that these 

 little crawlers seem to have, while mount- 

 ing, some loco-motive power without the 

 use of wings, and to move in the air faster 

 than the air itself. 



