MEMOIR OP SWAMMERDAM. 
37 
pone through the second change of their shin. God, 
therefore, the Supreme Artist, has been pleased to 
assign this insect a short life that surpasses adoration. 
“ Who has so great a genius, or is so conversant 
in the art of writing, as to be able to describe with 
a due sense, the trouble, the misfortunes this creature 
is subject to during the short continuance of its flying 
life? For my part, I confess I am by no means able 
to execute this task, nor do I know whether nature 
ever produced a more innocent and simple little crea- 
ture, which is, notwithstanding, destined to undergo 
so many miseries and horrible dangers. 
“ Besides that the life of the Ephemerus is short, 
nay, amazingly and incomprehensibly so, an infinite 
number of them are always destroyed in the birth, 
being devoured by fish. Nor does Clutius acquit any 
species of fish of this barbarity, except the perch and 
pike. Though the rest of the ephemeri have 
escaped this cruel danger, yet on land, when they 
are engaged in the great work of changing their skin, 
they are barbarously devoured by swallows and other 
birds. Nay, if they escape this danger, when they 
afterwards approach again to the surface of the water, 
and carelessly sport and play there with their wings 
and tails, they a second time become a prey to the 
fish, which drag them away to the dark bottom of 
the water, and devour them. If they fly higher into 
the air, another kind of torment attends them, for 
then they are persecuted with a different barbarity, 
by other kinds of birds, which tear their limbs 
asunder, and devour them. Though these insects 
