COLEOPTEROUS GIANTS. 
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sore of the rising world. This latter had nourished 
and multiplied the feebly animalized myriads of torpid 
worms and pale-blooded larvae, a ghastly and also the 
lowest life, which gained by passing through that burn¬ 
ing crucible of keen existence, the superior insect-race. 
I know nothing upon earth which seems stronger, 
firmer, more durable, and more formidable than those 
miniature rhinoceros-like cuirassiers, which traverse earth 
as quickly as the great mammal traverses it heavily and 
slowly. The carabi, the galeritas, the stag-beetles, which 
carry with so much ease armour far more formidable than 
that of the Middle Ages, reassure us only by their size. 
Here strength is relatively formidable. Were a man pro- \ 
portionally strong, he might take in his arms the obelisk 
of Luxor. 
Vast energies of absorption, concentrating in these 
insects enormous foci of forces, translated themselves into 
the light by the energies of colour. To these, in species 
where life was more elevated, succeeded the moral energies. The 
superbly barbarous heroes, the scarabcei, were exterminated by the 
modest citizen-species, the ants and bees, in which the secret of beauty 
was harmony. 
Such is the whole history of insects. But to whatever height our 
inquiries may conduct us, let us not mistake the point of departure, 
