Nature and Art, September 1, 1866.] 
DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 
125 
French government would have offered it to him 
under ordinary circumstances. 
To return to the Voyage en Italie , and show 
through the dimness of translation, what new light 
M. Taine can throw on hackneyed subjects, we 
quote this paragraph about Rome : — 
“ Rome may be compared to a painter’s studio; not to 
that of a fashionable artist who, like some of my country- 
men, dreams of fame and makes a parade of his profession, 
but the studio of an old broken-down painter, whose genius 
has long since deserted him, and left him to quarrel with 
tradesmen. He has been a bankrupt, and creditors have 
more than once seized his furniture, respecting nothing but 
a few works of art and the four walls. To-day he lives on 
the ruins of the past, acts as cicerone to the curious, takes 
money from the rich, whom he despises even while he 
pockets their fees. His fare is meagre, but he consoles 
himself with the memory of the glorious exhibition in which 
he has figured, vowing to himself, and sometimes to others, 
that next year he will take his revenge. It is not to be 
denied that the studio has a nauseous smell about it ; the 
floor has not been swept for an age ; the sofa is burnt here 
and there with the ashes of his pipe ; some old shoes worn 
down at heel are littered in a corner ; and still the side- 
board, on which lie a bit of sausage and a rind of cheese, 
is a real old piece of Renaissance furniture, and the thread- 
bare tapestry, which only half conceals a wretched mattress, 
is a fine work of the sixteenth century ; on the wall, along 
which runs the ugly stone chimney, hang rare bits of 
armour, and some arquebuses of beautiful workmanship. 
It is a place to see, but not to live in.” 
After giving liis general impression on the town 
at large, M. Taine proceeds to visit the public 
galleries and the chief works of great artists. The 
author has some interesting remarks on Raphael 
for instance : — 
“ His (Raphael’s) triumph is in ideal and allegorical 
personages Like the ancient artists, he sup- 
presses the fugitive and accidental expression of the human 
figure, as well as all the peculiarities betraying a being 
tossed about and crushed by the battles and perils of life. 
His personages are exempted from the laws of nature; 
they have never suffered, nor can they be moved ; their 
calm attitudes resemble those of statues. One would not 
dare to address them ; one is impressed with respect, and 
yet this respect is mixed up with sympathy, for you soon 
discover under their gravity an almost feminine kindliness 
and sensitiveness 
“ Of all the artists I know, none is more like him than 
Spencer. Many readers, at first, think Spencer formal and 
dull ; nothing seems real ; but soon one mounts with him 
into the light, and his characters, which are impossible, are 
divine.” 
Among a profusion of remarks and criticisms 
which would be worthy of notice, we choose the 
following : — 
“ There are four men who, in art and literature, have 
raised themselves above all others, so much so that they 
seem to belong to a separate race. Those men are Dante, 
Shakspeare, Beethoven, and Michael-Angelo. Neither their 
deep knowledge, nor their complete possession of every 
resource of art, nor their fertility of imagination, nor their 
originality of mind, could alone have given them that place ; 
they possess all these gifts, but this is of secondary impor- 
tance. What has carried them to such a height is their 
soul, a soul of fallen divinities, altogether raised by an 
irresistible effort towards a world out of proportion with 
ours, always fighting and suffering, always working and 
struggling, as incapable of being satiated, as of being 
discouraged, and ever employed in bringing forward before 
mankind giants as powerful and ungovernable, as painfully 
sublime, as the minds from which they sprang.” 
The first volume only of M. Tame’s work on 
Italy is yet published. It is chiefly devoted to 
Naples and Rome. In Naples he studies the climate 
and landscape, the neighbourhood, Herculaneum 
and Pompeii, the art-galleries, and even the habits 
and disposition of the people. Naturally, Rome 
is the principal theme of the book. M. Taine does 
not supply anything like a guide, but takes a 
general survey of the great men and things from 
which the town derives its well deserved fame. 
What this short analysis is completely inade- 
quate to show, is M. Taine’s marvellous power and 
variety of expression. His ability in using the 
, most exquisite and refined resources of language is 
perfectly charming. He draws more than he de- 
scribes, and the details that he adds are mere 
touches of colour. Others may exhibit more 
feeling and depth, but in the vivicl comprehension 
of the picturesque, we know no writer of the 
; present day in France, and few of any country or 
I period, who can be compared with him. 
DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS. 
I N the autumn of last year the Societe centrale d' Agricul- 
ture of France "got up an admirable exhibition of useful, 
and destructive insects in Paris. The success of the exhibi- 
tion has induced the society to form an International 
Society of Insectology, which promises to do some service 
to science as well as to agriculture and gardening. The 
object of the new society is to study and publish the history 
and habits of each class of destructive insects that prey 
upon the crops and devour forest, orchards, and gardens, 
and to give precise instructions relative to the proper season 
and means for their destruction. 
The ravages of insects have been terrible in France for 
some time, and the losses caused by them have reached a 
very serious total. In the central departments of France the 
ravages of the caterpillars have been enormous ; in the 
vicinity of Paris the cockchafers and caterpillars have 
devastated the plantations ; in Normandy the white worm 
has eaten up the green crops ; to the north of Paris a small 
black worm attacks the beetroot, and in Burgundy a coleo- 
pterous insect, called the neriter or the gribouri, endangers 
the great crops. The dryness of the seasons and the mild- 
ness of the winters are regarded as the chief causes of 
these invasions of insects. 
The destruction of these mischievous creatures is not so 
easy a matter as some persons may suppose ; it requires con- 
siderable entomological knowledge to know when the various 
changes take place in insect life, and which is the best season 
for attacking their haunts ; in fact, the general knowledge 
of the entomologist added to that of the special locality. 
The precise habits and transformations of each destructive 
insect require to be studied, and only then can effective 
means be taken to get rid of them. 
M. Guerin Mcneville has selected for example the Dacus 
oleas, which devastates the olive plantations, and has de- 
scribed its habits. The eggs are deposited in the olive at 
the moment of its formation, and lie there during the 
process of incubation. When the Parenchyma of the fruit 
is sufficiently developed to afford nourishment, the larvte 
