192 



INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city ; they 

 shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses ; 

 they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth 

 shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble : the sun 

 and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw 

 their shining ! " The usual way in which they are destroyed 

 is also noticed by the prophet. " I will remove far off from 

 you the northern army, and will drive him into a land 

 barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and 

 his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall 

 come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath 

 done great things ! " ^ 



I think, after a serious consideration of all these well at- 

 tested facts, when locusts contend with the two-legged de- 

 stroyers of the human race for proud pre-eminence in mis- 

 chief, you will find it difficult to determine to which the 

 palm should be decreed ; and you will admire the propriety 

 with which, in the above and other passages of Holy Writ, 

 they are selected as symbols of the great ravagers of the 

 earth of our own species. 



In many of the above instances these devastators appear to 

 have crossed the seas, but Hasselquist asserts that they are 

 not formed for such extensive flights. " The grasshopper or 

 locust," says he, " is not formed for travelling over the sea, 

 — it cannot fly far, but must alight as soon as it rises ; for 

 one that came on board us a hundred certainly were drowned. 

 We observe in the months of May and June a number of 

 these insects coming from the south, and directing their 

 course to the northern shore ; they darken the sky like a 

 thick cloud ; but scarcely have they quitted the shore, when 

 they, who a moment before ravaged and ruined the country, 

 cover the surface of the sea with their dead bodies. By 

 what instinct do these creatures undertake this dangerous 

 fliecht? Is it not the wise institution of the Creator to 

 destroy a dreadful plague to the country?"^ Locusts, how- 

 ever, as we have seen, take much longer flights than this 

 author supposes them able to do. It is probable that their 

 ability in this respect may depend a good deal upon their 



» Joel, ii. 2 — 10. 20. 2 Voyage to the Levant, 444. 



