COLEOPTEEOTJS INSECTS. 
165 
Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ; 
Now motionless and dark, eluded search, 
Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky, 
Rose like a shower of fire.* 
An appearance alike remarkable for its singularity 
and beauty, is well fitted to afford imagery to the 
poetry and figurative oratory of the natives of the 
countries where it prevails ; and if a learned Greek 
could suppose the hum of an obscure beetle to be 
the voice of the gods speaking to mankind, f it need 
less excite our wonder that some savage nations, 
unacquainted with the causes of natural phenome- 
na, and so prone to consider “ holy light” as a di- 
vine effulgence, should have regarded even the more 
obscure manifestations of a supposed celestial princi- 
ple with superstitious veneration, and imagined these 
illuminated beings to be the appointed vehicles for 
conveying the souls of the departed to their final 
resting place. 
The following extract contains an account of the 
introduction of a few fire-flies into Britain : — “ Mr 
Lees having been struck with the beauty of the 
fire-fly on his arrival in the West Indies, and be- 
coming desirous to keep them alive, made several 
attempts during his residence at the Bahamas ; but 
* Southey’s Madoc. 
+ Dum volant, tanto stridore vel murmure et gemitu 
potius aerem replent, ut per eos Deorum cum hominibus 
fieri colloquia Laertius scriberet. — Mouf. Theat. 134. 
