CHAPTER XX. 



Arachnida. 



(Spiders, Scorpions, and Mites.') 



The common consent of mankind regards most of those 

 creatures of which we are about to speak with revulsion 

 and abhorrence ; and it must be confessed that the closer 

 examination which the scientific naturalist bestows on 

 them, has only resulted in more firmly fixing upon them 

 the stigma of a bad character, — decidedly, undeniably bad. 

 The poet's verdict is true, when he calls the Spider 



" Cunning and fierce — mixture abhorr'd." 



Bloodthirsty and vindictive, treacherous and cruel even to 

 their own kind, bold and prompt in warfare, ever vigilant, 

 full of stratagem and artifice, highly venomous, lurking in 

 darkness, endowed with curious instincts, and furnished 

 with many accessory means for the capture and destruc- 

 tion of other animals — the Spiders and Scorpions do not 

 move our esteem, it must be confessed ; and an entomo- 

 logist of the highest eminence,'"' carrying out the notion 

 that the seen things of nature are symbols and pictures 

 of the unseen and spiritual, views in these creatures the 



* Kirby, Bridgewater Treatise. 



J 



