1879* in Relation to the Weather. 729 
popular superstitions of various nations, but has even crept 
into their sacred writings. This result is perhaps partly 
due to the fabulists and moralists who have utilised familiar 
objedts in order to convey moral and religious truths more 
pleasantly to the people. But the more rigidly scientific 
and exadt methods of modem enquiry have tended to reveal 
more fully, to refledtive minds, the harmony of Nature, the 
perfection of the various parts of her machinery, and their 
adaptation to one another ; and also to show how the great 
Author of Nature has adjusted the springs with unerring 
hand, making precise compensation in the balance, and dis- 
tributing with infinite wisdom both intelligence and force. 
Certainly there is much more scope for enquiry among 
the lower creatures than many persons are aware of, as a 
careful study of the ant, the bee, or the spider will reveal, 
and has, in fact, revealed in recent times. 
The following incident may serve as an illustration both 
of the mechanical dexterity and audacity, and also of the 
occasionally social instinct , of the last-mentioned creature ; 
and possibly of the same law under which birds become 
tame upon the approach of severe weather : — In the autumn 
of 1878, upon a table on which the writer was dining, four 
candles were placed in an elongated diamond-form. They 
had not been lighted long when a tiny spider, scarcely larger 
than a pin-head, was observed to have hung his lines after 
this fashion (see figure) : — 
The summits of the candles were connected by a single line, 
rigidly strung, and uniting the very cups formed by the heat 
of the flame rising from their centres. It seems absurd to 
suppose that such a delicate thread could have been floated 
into this symmetrical form by atmospheric agency, in a room 
where the currents of air would necessarily be much dis- 
turbed ; especially if we consider the fadt of the flames 
being less than half an inch from each point of attachment 
to the candles. It would, again, be equally absurd to ima- 
gine that the tiny creature had ascended each candle sepa- 
