Chapter 13

NOTE 7.—Book ii., Chap. i.Swammerdam.—We refer to the inaugurator and martyr of our science, the creator of the instrument which has enabled men to follow up his discoveries,—a great inventor in many senses,—specially for the preparation of anatomical specimens. The reader should study hisBiblia Naturæ, in Boerhaave's edition, ornamented with fine illustrations (two vols. folio), and not in the incomplete French abridgment, published in theMémoiresof the Academy of Dijon, which gives the scientific results, but no trace of the man.We do not undertake to write the history of Entomology. A good abridgment will be found at the end of M. Th. Lacordaire'sIntroduction à l'Entomologie.NOTE 8.—Book ii., Chap. iv.The Insect as Man's Auxiliary.—The ingenious work which I here confute, and which, assuredly, cannot be read with gratification, is entitled,—Les Insectes, ou Réflexions d'un amateur de la chasse aux petits oiseaux, par E. Gand,Lecture faite à l'Académie d'Amiens(26th December 1856).A remark which I make a few pages further on, in reference to the necessity of a popular teaching of natural history, well deserves to gain attention. The wealth and morality of the world would be doubled if this teaching could be universal. M. Emile Blanchard's important work,Zoologie Agricole(in folio, 1854), gives the very useful history of the principal insects injurious to our ordinary or ornamental plants. M. Pouchet, in his excellentMémoireon the Cockchafer, enumerates the principal authors who have described the destructive insects. The United States Congress has entrusted to Mr. Harris the preparation of a history of them.NOTE 9.—Book ii., Chap. v.Light and Colour.—My description of tropical climates is borrowed from a large number of travellers,—Humboldt, Azara, Auguste, Saint-Hilaire, Castelneau, Weddell, Charles Waterton, and others. For Brazil and Guiana,I have been greatly indebted to the exceeding courtesy of M. Ferdinand Denis, whose knowledge of those countries is so perfect.Paris possesses several fine collections of insects, besides that of the Museum. One of the best-known is Doctor Bois Duval's (lepidoptera). An establishment exclusively devoted to the sale of insects may be found at No. 17 Rue des Saints-Pères. The magnificent collection to which I refer on page 176, is that of M. Douë, who most readily showed it to us, and explained it with infinite complaisance.The anecdote which concludes chapter xii. (The Ornament of Living Flames) is related, in reference to the women of Santa Cruz in Bolivia, by the always accurate Dr. Weddell. The Indian phrase, "Replace it whence thou borrowedst it," is recorded by Waterton.NOTE 10.—Book ii., Chap. viii.Renovation of Human Arts by Study of the Insect.—Who has not seen that for a long time the art of decoration has made no progress, does but incessantly repeat itself? When a particular subject has lasted ten years, men think to rejuvenate it with a few variations. In a life of half a century I have several times seen this rotation of fashion, which would appear singularly monotonous if we did not possess in so high a degree the gift of forgetfulness.The decorative art, instead of seeking its renovation in the things of old, would profit greatly by drawing its inspiration from the infinity of beauties distributed throughout Nature. They abound and superabound:—1st, In the highly accented forms of tropical plants. Ours only produce their effect in masses, and on a grand scale.2nd, In those of a great number of the lower animals, radiata, and others; in many of the little floating molluscs, living and imperceptible flowers, the design of which, when enlarged, might suggest some very original ideas.3rd, In certain parts of the most despised creatures; as, for example, in the eyes of the fly.4th, In the forms, designs, and colours one detects in the thickness of the living tissue; as, for example, on lifting with the scalpel the strata of the wing-sheath of the beetles. Nature, which has so embellished the surface, has hidden, perhaps, still more beauty in the depth. Nothing is finer than the vital fluids, when seen in the mobility of their circulation, and in the delicate canals where that circulation is accomplished and defined. They speak to us less eloquently, and impress us less forcibly by the splendour of the glittering leaves among which they circulate, than by the expressive forms in which we divine the mystery of their life. These are their visible energies.NOTE 11.—Book ii., Chaps. ix. and x.The Spider.—These two chapters are mainly the result of our own observations. We have profited, however, by several authorities; especially by the capital and classical work, the grand labour of Walckenaër,—which is of importance both for the description, classification, and moral history of the Spiders.Azara tells us that in Paraguay the natives spin the cocoon of a great orange-coloured spider fully an inch in diameter. Sir George Staunton, the English ambassador to China, in his "Travels in Java" (vol. i., p. 343) informs us that the epeiras of Asia weave such stout webs that they can only be cut with a sharp-edged instrument; at the Bermudas, their webs are capable of arresting the progress of a bird as big as a thrush (Richard Stafford,Coll. Acad., ii., p. 156).Doctor Lemercier, our learned bibliographer, has lent to me (from his personal collection) a rare and very cleverbrochureby Quatrefages on the hygrometrical sensibility of spiders, on their prescience of variations of the temperature—which we might very well turn to advantage—and on the skilful exposure of their webs.The formation of their beautiful and poetical autumn-webs, which arecalledVirgin's Threads, is very clearly explained by Des Étang, in theMémoires de la Société Agricole de Troyes, for 1839.In reference to the spider's most terrible enemy, the ichneumon, some curious details are given in the fourth volume of theMemoirsof the American Society. In order to preserve it for its little ones, it does not kill its victim, but, if one may so speak, etherizes it by pricking it, and distilling into the wound a venom which apparently paralyzes it.My remarks on the terror of the male in his amorous advances are based upon those of De Geer, and Lepelletier, in theNouveau Bulletin de la Société Philomathique, pt. 67, p. 257.Finally, the master-work of the spider, the ingeniously constructed house and door of theMygaleof Corsica, has been completely described and drawn by an observer whom one can trust implicitly,—Audouin (followed by Walckenaër, and others).NOTE 12.-Book iii., Chap. i.The Termites.—The beautiful illustrations of Smeathman would merit reproduction, and the translation of his book (ed. 1784), now very rarely met with, ought to be reprinted. The interesting additional details collected by Azara, Auguste, Saint-Hilaire, Castelneau, and others, might be added, so as to make a complete monograph.It is by no means a matter of slight import to recognize that the true andgrand principle of art, so long misunderstood in the Middle Ages, has been always followed to the very letter by creatures of so low an order, in their surprising constructions.The fact I have related in reference to the subterranean mining of Valencia by the termites, will be found in Humboldt's "Travels in Equinoctial America."As for La Rochelle, read the interesting chapter in M. de Quatrefages'Souvenirs d'un Naturaliste.NOTE 13.—Book iii., Chap. ii.The Ants.—The migrations of the tropical ants, say Azara and Lacordaire, sometimes last over two or three days. They are to be compared in continuousness and frightful numbers only to the clouds of pigeons which, in North America, obscure the sky for several days in succession (see Audubon). Lund (Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1831, vol. xxiii., p. 113) gives a curious picture of these ant-migrations. They are terribly warlike, and the Americans amuse themselves by opposing in a duel thevisiting ant(Atta) to theAraraaant. The latter, though the weaker, prevails through the potency of its poison.As for our European ants, my brother-in-law, M. Hippolyte Mialaret, transmits to me a curious fact, which, I believe, has not before been observed. He gave them a medley of various kinds of grain,—wheat, barley, rye,—which they employed in their buildings. Having opened the ant-hill, he found the grains carefully classified, and distributed on different stories,—wheat, for example, on the second, barley on the third,—the different kinds being nowhere mixed.An excellent Italian dissertation by M. Giuseppe Gené would induce one to believe Huber mistaken in his assertion that the mother ant can by her unaided self found a community. After her fecundation she retires into a corner, where she plucks off her wings, and waits. There some prowling ants discover, feel, and recognize her, her and her eggs sown on the ground, with much prudence and even visible mistrust. Afterwards they explore the country round about with an infinite circumspection, always coming back to the mother, and hesitating long before they decide. At length, their numbers increasing, they definitively adopt her, and set to work.The indomitable perseverance of the ants is celebrated in a beautiful Oriental legend of I know not what Asiatic prince,—Tamerlane, I believe. Beaten and defeated several times in one campaign, he was seated, almost despairing, in the depth of his tent. An ant mounted the side. Several times he made it drop, but it invariably reascended. He was curious to see how long it would persevere, and twenty-four times threw it to the groundwithout discouraging it. Then he grew tired, and moreover he was full of admiration. The ant conquered. So he said: "Let us imitate it. We too will conquer as the ant has done." But for the ant, the hero had missed the Empire of Asia.NOTE 14.—Book iii., Chap. iii.Flocks of the Ants.—Nearly every plant nourishes grubs, which are embellished with the most varied, and frequently the most dazzling colours. The rose-tree aphis, when I examined it through a microscope, seemed to me of a very pleasant bright green. Thrown on its back, it displayed a very big belly, and a very small ungainly head, which appeared to be neither more nor less than a sucker, while it agitated all its limbs. On the whole, I took it to be an innocent creature, which should inspire no repugnant feeling. One can understand how the ants absorb the honey-dew upon its body. (See Bonnet and others, in reference to their prodigious fecundity.)NOTE 15.—Book iii., Chap. v.The Wasps.—Before speaking of this terrible species, in which, perhaps, we see revealed the loftiest energy of nature, I ought to have spoken of its modest neighbour, the drone. Réaumur, who is not sufficiently known as a writer, and who frequently displays much grace of style, says, very pleasingly, that the poor drones, in their rough little societies, when compared with the royal communities of the wasps and bees, are mere rustics or savages, andtheir nests so many hamlets, but that we find a pleasure, even after having visited great capitals, in resting our eyes on the simplicity of villages and villagers. (Réaumur,Mémoires, vol. vi., p. iii. preface, and p. 4 text.) Notwithstanding their simplicity, the drones are industrious, and have their characteristic manners and virtues. The poor males, so despised elsewhere, are more happily employed here in a society where the lofty speciality of art, not being so strikingly developed in the females, proves less humiliating; they are almost the equals of their spouses, who do not massacre them, as the wasps and bees do their destined husbands.NOTE 16.—Book iii., Chap. viii.The Wax-making Bees. An Aristocracy of Artists.—I here follow, in the main, the authority of M. Debeauvoys, in hisGuide de l'Apiculteur("The Bee-keeper's Manual"), ed. 1853. In this little but important book he has made the all-important distinction which escaped Huber's notice, and separated the great wax-making architects from the little gleaners and nurses. But I ask his permission to trust rather to M. Dujardin on the general character of the bees. They are, undoubtedly, choleric, and of a very dry temperament; the liqueurs and perfumes of the flowers excite them, and compel them frequently to quench their thirst. But in themselves they are sufficiently gentle, and can even be tamed. M. Dujardin, having renewed every day the provisions of a poor hive, was readily recognized by the bees, who flew towards him, and ran over his hands without stinging him. The annual destruction which they consummate of their males is a common law with them; the wasps, and other necessitous tribes, living in dread of famine at the epoch when the flowers disappear. In America they are looked upon as the sign of civilization. The Indians see in the bee the type of the white race, and in the buffalo the precursor of the red. (Washington Irving, "Tour in the Prairies.")The bees, as sisters and aunts, remind one of the Germany of Tacitus:—"The aunt is there held in higher esteem than the mother." It must have resembled a country of bees.M. Pouchet, whom I have already cited several times, has been good enough to furnish me with a very interesting anecdote of the mason-bees:—"In Egypt and Nubia, which I traversed some few months ago, these hymenoptera and their buildings are so abundant that the ceilings of certain temples and those of some hypogea are entirely covered with them, and they absolutely mask the sculptures and hieroglyphics. These nests frequently form there a succession of layers; and in certain localities they are superimposed one upon another in sufficient numbers to form a kind of stalactite suspended to the vaulted roofs of the monuments. In their construction the bee makes use of Nile mud only; and when she has deposited therein her progeny, she seals them up with a delicately wrought cover, which the young bee, after having undergone its various metamorphoses, lifts off and flies away. But these nests are often broken up by a species of lizard, which, by means of its singularly sharp nails, climbs to the ceilings. There it wages incessant war against the mason-bees while they are building their nests, or rather it may be seen crashing through the walls to devour their young progeny."NOTE 17.—Conclusion,p. 337.A Feminine Intuition.—A great question of method which the future will clear up, is, to know how far woman will one day master the sciences of life, and to what extent the study of these sciences will be shared between the two sexes. If sympathy for animals, long and patient tenderness, the persevering observation of the delicatest objects, were the only qualities which this study demanded, it would seem as if woman ought to make the best naturalist. But the life-sciences have another and a far gloomier aspect, which repels and affrights; and it is so, because they are at the same time the sciences of death.However, in this very century, the grand and leading discovery, all-important for the knowledge of the higher insects, belongs to a maiden, the daughter of a scientific naturalist of French Switzerland, Mademoiselle Jurine. She has found that the bee-workers, who were thought to beneuters(of neither the one nor the other sex), were really females, attenuated by their exceedinglynarrow cradles and inferior regimen. Now, as these workers form nearly the whole people (except five or six bred as queens, and a few hundred males), it follows that the hive of twenty or thirty thousand bees is female. Thus the predominance of the feminine sex, the general law of insect life, has obtained its supreme confirmation. There areno neuters; neither among the bees, nor the ants, nor all the superior tribes of insects. The males are a small exception, a secondary accident. I feel able to assert that, on the whole,the insect is female.Mademoiselle Jurine's discovery has also revealed to us the true character of the maternity of adoption, an admirably original characteristic of these insects, and the elevated law of disinterestedness and sacrifice which is the ennoblement of their communities.An undoubtedly inferior, but still distinguished merit to that of accomplishing great discoveries, is that of representing animals to us by pen or pencil in their true forms, their movements, and the general harmony of the things with which they are associated. No art seems to belong more naturally to woman. A woman has commenced it.The illustrious Audubon has won just admiration for his representation of the bird in its complete harmonies, its animal and vegetable medium, on the plants which feed, near the enemy which assails it. But it has been too generally forgotten that the model of his harmonious paintings, which present us with so true a picture of life, was furnished by a woman, Sybille de Mérian. Her handsome volume (Métamorphose des Insectes de Surinam, folio, in three languages, ed. 1705), was the first in which this admirable method was invented and skilfully applied.She is called "Mademoiselle," though she was married. The name of "dame" was in her time still restricted to women of noble birth. And she remains "Mademoiselle;" is never cited except under her maiden name. Her books, from their pure science and great perseverance, give one the idea of a person lifted above the world of persons, and wholly devoted to art and nature.I have dedicated to her a word or two, but without speaking of her life. A native of Bâle, the daughter, sister, and mother of celebrated engravers, and herself an excellent painter of flowers upon velvet, she long resided at Frankfort and Nurenberg. She experienced great misfortunes, her husband being ruined and having separated from her. She then sought refuge in a mystical society, analogous to that which had formerly consoled Swammerdam. The religious spark of the new science,the theology of insects, as a contemporary terms it, here produced a strong impression on her mind. She was acquainted with Swammerdam's great idea, the unity of metamorphoses, and with that which Malpighi had flung in the face of astonished Europe in his book on the silkworm: "Insects have a heart."What! they have a heart, like us! Which, like ours, throbs and stirs atthe impulse of their desires, their fears, or their passions! How touching an idea! How well adapted to influence a woman!—But is this a fact? Many long denied it, but doubt has been impossible since the truth was demonstrated in 1824 in M. Strauss's treatise on "The Cockchafer."Madame de Mérian, then, started from the silkworm. But her curiosity and artistic eagerness embraced everything. Contrasted with her dull and sombre Germany, Holland, with its rich American and Oriental collections, appeared to her like the great museum of the tropics. There she established herself, and with her pencil made its collections her own. Those faëry cemeteries, glittering with the beauty of the dead, did but whet in her the desire to investigate life in the region where it most luxuriates. At the age of fifty-four she set out for Guiana; and, during a two years' residence in its dangerous climate, collected the drawings and paintings which were to inaugurate art in natural history.In this branch of labour, the stumbling-block of the artist, who is an artist and nothing more, is that he may do very well, but make Nature coquettish, add the pretty to the beautiful, and flourish those graces and daintinesses which secure for a scientific treatise the favour of fashionable ladies. Nothing of this kind is discernible in the work of Sybille de Mérian, but on every page a noble vigour, a masculine gravity, a courageous simplicity. At the same time, a close inspection, especially of the illustrations coloured by her own hand, discovers in the softness, breadth, and fulness of the plants, their lustrous and velvety freshness,—the tones either dead or enamelled, and, as it were, flowered, which the insects offer,—the tender, conscientious hand of a woman who has laboured upon the whole with a reverence inspired by love.We have seen (p. 180), in our chapter on theFire-Flies, the astonishment of the timid German in a world so new, when the savages brought her its living materials,—venomous herbs, lizards, and snakes, and fantastic serpents. But the very strangeness of this nature, the emotions of the painter trembling before her models, the restless attention with which she sought to seize the changeful physiognomy and mysterious manners, while keenly agitating her heart, did but awaken her genius. Never satisfied by her representations of fugitive realities, she believed she could make each insect properly known only by painting it under all its forms (caterpillar, nymph, butterfly). And this not contenting her, she placed beneath it the vegetable on which it fed, and by its side the lizard, serpent, or spider which fed uponit. Thus, the mutuality and exchange of nature was clearly shown; you saw clearly that formidable circulation, which, in tropical climates, is so rapid. Each of those fine plates, so harmonious and so complete, instructs not only by its truthful details, but inspires a profound sympathy with life, which is a very different and much more valuable teaching.One thing strikes me, which, however, this love explains. She has paintedside by side those creatures which devour one another. They draw close together, each faces its antagonist, and you conclude that a frightful duel is imminent. But she has generally concealed the tragic struggle. She has shrunk from painting death.How much more terrible would have been her task had she advanced further, had she opened and dissected her models, and forced her feminine pencil to the lugubrious painting of anatomical detail!And here we recognize the precise limit at which women are arrested in the study of the natural sciences. They are incapable of confronting it onbothsides. Michael Angelo has finely said:—"Death and life are but one. They are the work of the same master and the same hand." But women do not submit. Between them and death no compact is possible. This is very easily understood; they themselvesarelife in all its prolific charm. They are born to give it. Whatever breaks the charm is a horror to them. Death, and especially pain, are not only antipathic, but almost incomprehensible. They feel that only happiness and joy should attend upon woman. Pain inflicted by a woman's hand appears to them very justly as a horrible contradiction.In the natural sciences there are three things they may master, the three things of life: theincubationof the new being,—that is, the tenderness of its earliest care; theeducation, thenourishment(to speak as our fathers did) of the young adults; finally, theobservationof manners, and the subtle intelligence of means of inter-communication with all species. By the aid of these three woman's arts, man may conciliate and gradually appropriate the inferior species, and even many of the insect species. To them belong entirely the arts of domestication. If childhood were less cruel, or at least not harshly insensible, it might share these womanly cares. For Woman, as a soft and tender child, full of pity, is the mediator of all nature.But as for death, as for pain, as for the lights which science draws from them, do not speak of them to Woman. Here she halts, leaves you on the road, and will go no further forward.She asserts—and the assertion may appear of some real weight, even to the sedatest minds—that science, of late years, has marched by two contrary roads: on the one hand, demonstrating by the study of manners and of organs that animals are not a world apart, but far more like ourselves than had been generally supposed; and on the other, when it has so clearly proved their great resemblance, and consequently their capacity of suffering, it ordains that we shall inflict upon them the most exquisite and most cruelly protracted agonies.Science, on this terrible side, closes itself more and more against women. Nature, while inviting them to penetrate it, checks them at the same time by their excessive tenderness of feeling, and by the reverence for life with which she herself has inspired them.Of all creatures, insects seemed the least worthy of being trained (or domesticated). They were sought only for their colours. Nevertheless, whoever sees in the pursuit nothing but a simple pleasure, will perhaps reflect for a moment when he learns that impaled insects frequently endure their torture for whole years! (See Lemahoux, and, particularly, the excellentBulletin de la Société Protectrice des Animaux, September and October 1856.)In proportion as women understand the maternal instincts of the creatures I have described, their infinite tenderness, and their ingenious prevision for the objects of their love, it will become impossible for mothers to immolatethesemothers, and put them to the torture!Last Words.The originating sentiment of the studies of which this book is the outcome, is also that which induced their suspension. Their primary attraction was found in Huber's revelation, in his vivid manifestation of the individuality of the insect. But that which at the first glance had seemed so paradoxical and incredible, was discovered, when verified, to fall below the reality. The spectacle of so many labours and efforts for the common good, the sight of all these meritorious existences, imposes a duty upon our conscience, and renders it more and more difficult to treat as athingthe being which wills, and toils, and loves!Analysis of Subjects.INTRODUCTION.I. THE LIVING INFINITE.The writer is moved by the voices of the Insect World,17Which leads him to reflect on its infinite numbers,18He refers to his loving study of the Bird,19But the Bird had a language; has the Insect?,19In many respects, it is an enigma which Man cannot read,20The Insect, however, has much to plead in self-defence,21And between it and Man the interpreter must be Love,22II. OUR STUDIES AT PARIS AND IN SWITZERLAND.How the writer was assisted by his wife in his study of the Insect,23Woman is well adapted for such a study; and why?,24Her tact, delicate touch, and fine perception fit her for microscopical investigations,24The writer seeks a retirement near Lucerne,25The surrounding scenery is described,26And he bursts into a glowing panegyric on the Alps,27He discourses on the communion between Nature and the human soul,28This leads him to a description of a forest scene,29In which he recognizes the presence of the insect life,30A constant conflict is maintained between the insect and the plant, the latter being aided by the bird,30In the forest, then, lurks a hidden world,31The interior of an ant-hill is suddenly revealed,32And the effects become visible of the formic acid,33Reflections suggested by the ruined ant-hill,34III. OUR STUDIES AT FONTAINEBLEAU.The writer resolves to attempt an explanation of the Insect World,36For such a task Fontainebleau offers peculiar facilities,37A description is given of the characteristics of the place,38It has had a peculiar charm for many illustrious men,41Its individuality is distinct,42In the course of a day it presents various changes,43Yet throughout all a certain sameness is preserved,44This is expressed by the "genius loci,",45The voices of the forest,46Its suitability as a place for reflection,47Its suggestiveness; the very oaks enforce a lesson of perseverance,48Its life centres in its quarrymen and its ants,49The contrast between their several labours,50Nature and the Individual,51The writer enters upon the composition of the present book,52BOOK THE FIRST.—METAMORPHOSIS.CHAPTER I.—TERROR AND REPUGNANCE IN CHILDHOOD.Extract from a Journal written by Madame Michelet,57In which she describes a visit to the home of her childhood,58Painful impressions produced by the ravages of the insect,59The writer comments on the repugnance with which the insect is viewed by childhood,60This repugnance is not shared by Nature,61Which protects and facilitates it in its work,62On account of its vast importance,63CHAPTER II.—COMPASSION.The artist Gros reproached a young man for cruelty towards a butterfly,67Lyonnet, the naturalist, equally insisted on tenderness towards even the lowest forms of life,68The writer records his adventure with a drone, which he thought he had killed, in a moment of petulance,69His happiness on seeing the insect revive,70Begins to study the insect seriously on a Swiss tour,70Another extract from Madame Michelet's Journal,71In which is described the author's retreat at Montreux, on the shore of the Lake of Geneva,72In one of her walks she observes a combat between a stag-beetle and a beetle of inferior size,73The stag-beetle is captured for the purpose of examination,73Effect produced upon it by the vapour of ether,74Regret expressed at having terminated its existence,75CHAPTER III.—WORLD-BUILDERS.The worldoutsidethe terrestrial world,79The world of the infinitely little; the architects of ocean,80The immense works accomplished by the lower organisms,81They build up reefs, banks, islands,82The manufacture of chalk described,83How a coral-island is gradually developed,83,84Examples of the labours of the coral animals,85CHAPTER IV.—LOVE AND DEATH.Above these organisms in the scale of creation comes the insect,89Its individuality is explained; its mode of reproduction,90The insect-mother dies in producing her offspring,91But with extraordinary sagacity has provided for its support and protection,92Examples given of this wonderful maternal provision,93The labours of the mother-bee explained,94Reference to the "Nymphs of Fontainebleau,"95CHAPTER V.—THE ORPHAN: ITS FEEBLENESS.The insect enters upon life naked and necessitous,99But all its wants have been carefully anticipated,100Night, however, is the great protection of the embryo,101How it endeavours to guard against cold,102In its necessities originate its various industries,103After a time comes its season of trial,104Of which it exhibits a marvellous presentiment, and for which it assiduously prepares,105CHAPTER VI.—THE MUMMY, NYMPH, OR CHRYSALIS.The meaning of the insect to the ancient Egyptians,109The beetle was regarded as a symbol of Eternity,110Has modern science swept aside the ancient poetry?110That it is not so, is shown by Réaumur's discoveries,111Which show us the marvellous changes the insect undergoes,112And how in each stage of growth the next is prefigured,113However numerous or great the changes, the individuality is preserved,114A future life is provided for, as in the case of the human embryo,115CHAPTER VII.—THE PHŒNIX.Out of gloom and obscurity emerges light,119The metamorphosis takes place, but the insect is not at a loss,120Nature furnishes each species with all its needs for the new life,121Its vital intensity is revealed by the brightness of its colouring,122Insects of gay attire are found in every region,123Even among the snows of the Alpine peaks,124BOOK THE SECOND.—MISSION AND ARTS OF THE INSECT.CHAPTER I.—SWAMMERDAM.The secret of the Insect World first discovered by Swammerdam,129A comparison instituted between him and Galileo,130His early years, his favourite occupations, and his collections of insects,131,132To assist him in his investigations he invented the microscope,133His patient labours rewarded by great discoveries,134Yet in his own country he was not honoured; it was in France that his work met with due appreciation,135Ardent devotion to science brings on premature decay,136Dark clouds overcast his later years,137He died at the age of three and forty,138His work is carried on by Leuwenhoek and Malpighi,139CHAPTER II.—THE MICROSCOPE: HAS THE INSECT A PHYSIOGNOMY?In the infinitely little lurks a great attraction for man,143Hence its study should be systematically undertaken,144Michelet applies himself to his microscope,145And examines the structure of an insect's wing,146Next, he studies the organization of the ant,147He describes what he saw,148A complex apparatus, both for action and defence,150What it is which separates us from the insect,151CHAPTER III.—THE INSECT AS THE AGENT OF NATURE IN THE ACCELERATION OF DEATH AND LIFE.The language of the insect in its immense energy,155A glance is directed at the order of Nature,156And it is shown that all forms of life must be kept within certain limits,156Hence, one race preys upon another, and all Nature is a scene of incessant combat,157In this work of destruction, and purification, the Bird and the Insect play an important part,158The Coleoptera bring their surprising energies to the task,159The insect-tribes are therefore great sanitary agents,160The great Guiana ants afford an illustration,161And the beneficent labours of the spider have secured the respect of the Siberians,162CHAPTER IV.—THE INSECT AS MAN'S AUXILIARY.The want of insect-labour induced the potato disease,165Such is the dictum of an author, who thinks that the multiplication of small birds has been destructive to insect-life; but no such multiplication of birds has taken place, nor any such destruction of insects,165,166The Bird and the Insect are the joint purifiers of creation,167Some species of insects should be carefully preserved,167A sketch is given of their multifarious labours,168Of the services rendered by the scavenger-insects,169Of the value of certain insects as food,170As, for instance, in the case of the locust,171The law of retaliation illustrated,172CHAPTER V.—A PHANTASMAGORIA OF LIGHT AND COLOUR.How does the insect express its intensity of vital force?175In various ways, but specially through its glowing hues,176Which are displayed with a profusion that astonishes and almost overcomes the observer,177But are not inconsistent with an ingenious mimicry,177A diversion is made to the tropical forest,178Where the insect life is seen in its most splendid developments,179Like winged flames they haunt the leafy shades,180The fire-fly lights up the gloom, and also furnishes woman's beauty with a living ornament,181,182CHAPTER VI.—THE SILKWORM.The exquisite structure of a woman's hair enlarged upon,185What can compare with it? Only the silkworm's thread,186Peculiar charm attending the silkworm's labours,186And the preciousness of the silken product,187Something is said about the use of silk in Mediæval France,188And on its excellence and fitness as a garment for Beauty,189CHAPTER VII.—INSTRUMENTS OF THE INSECT: AND ITS CHEMICAL ENERGIES, AS IN THE COCHINEAL AND THE CANTHARIDES.Hitherto the writer has treated only of the silk of the bombyx,193He now commends the culture of other silk-spinning species,194And is led to speak of the ingenious instruments with which insects are provided,194And of their general powers and properties,195Something is said about their weapons,196And the malalis is spoken of,197CHAPTER VIII.—ON THE RENOVATION OF OUR ARTS BY THE STUDY OF THE INSECT.The Fine Arts would profit by a close study of the insect,201Much might be learned, for instance, from the cockchafer's wing,202Nature is full of suggestive beauty,203Observe the enamels of the cicindela,204And those of the scarabæi,205Instead of copying from antique absurdities, go then to the insect-collector's cabinet,206And its treasures will inspire the artist with new ideas,207CHAPTER IX.—THE SPIDER—INDUSTRY—STANDING STILL.We come to the consideration of the spider,211Whose life is a lottery, and which is branded with ugliness,212It is, however, the type of the persevering worker,213An anecdote in illustration of its character,214Its web, and the mode of its construction, described,215Prudence and patience the characteristics of the spider,216All animals live by prey, and the spider has its foes,217Its existence is confined within a narrow circle,218And is easily terminated,219CHAPTER X.—THE HOME AND LOVES OF THE SPIDER.Admirable construction of its web,223A glance at the retreat of the Agelena,224Still greater ingenuity is shown by the Mygale,225In the web lurks the weaver, always expectant,225A sensitive being, and subject to fancies of terror,227In his moments of love he is timorous and suspicious,228How he is affected by musical sounds,229BOOK THE THIRD.—COMMUNITIES OF INSECTS.CHAPTER I.—THE TERMITES, OR WHITE ANTS.The habitations of the termites, erroneously called White Ants, described, both externally and internally,235,236A wonderful degree of skill shown in the erection of the great dome,237Yet the builders labour under specially difficult circumstances,238Their queen's fecundity; her offspring are tenderly treated,239Their numbers would be a terror to man, were they not checked by many enemies,240An illustration is given of their terrible ravages,241CHAPTER II.—THE ANTS:—THEIR DOMESTIC ECONOMY—THEIR NUPTIALS.Value of the ants as purifying and cleansing agents,245An incident at Barbadoes,246The carpenter-ants, and their ingenuity, described,247Singular affection which they display for the young,251They watch over them with incessant vigilance; their mode of inter-communication,251A picture is given of the economy of an ant-hill,252In their labours the ants solve numerous problems by sheer intuition,253Their nuptials described as an idyllic poem,254What remained in the morning,255CHAPTER III.—THE ANTS: THEIR FLOCKS AND THEIR SLAVES.The writer's pain at discovering among the ants the existence of slavery,259Considerations which induced him to continue his studies,260He finds that the ants keep their "herds of cattle,"261And discovers a reason for their apparent encouragement of slavery,262Mixed communities of ants; workers and warriors,263The workers are in reality the masters, though they seem to be slaves,264A campaign described; red against black,265Ant-societies regulated on the principle of division of labour,266Their species undergo modifications in special circumstances,267The influence of intellect over brute force exemplified,268CHAPTER IV.—THE ANTS: CIVIL WAR—EXTERMINATION OF THE COMMUNITY.It is the punishment of the tyrant that he cannot readily set free his captive,271The caged nightingale, and the clod of earth,272This clod proves to contain a republic of carpenter-ants,272An effort is made to found a new community; difficulties in the way,273An encounter between the carpenter-ants and some mason-ants,274In which the victory is on the side of the Little,275Who carry off the young of the conquered,276A digression comments on the helplessness of the nymph, or larva,277And points out its exceeding suffering in the hands of a victorious enemy,278The writer is shocked by the relentless cruelty of the conquerors,279Who have left but one poor fugitive to mourn the death of his companions,280CHAPTER V.—THE WASPS: THEIR FURY OF IMPROVISATION.Sensation caused by the intrusion of a wasp,283A panegyric on a much-abused insect,284Excessive industry of the wasp,285It works, first, as a paper manufacturer; and next, as a mason,285It builds its city with curious forethought and ingenuity,286The mother-wasp, a remarkable example of self-sacrifice,287Wasps distinguished by their patriotic enthusiasm,288At the approach of winter they dissolve the commonwealth,289CHAPTER VI.—"THE BEES" OF VIRGIL.The Virgilian fable of Aristæus misunderstood,293Intended by the poet as a parable of immortality,294The writer was accidentally led to an understanding of its true significance,295A visit to the cemetery of Père-Lachaise,295Here certain lonely graves were haunted by a flight of bees,296Yet they were not true bees; they were two-winged,297They were "the Bees" of which Virgil had sung,298CHAPTER VII.—THE BEE IN THE FIELDS.Contrast between the Plant and the Animal,301Yet the one life in some points approaches the other, and a certain sympathy exists between the flower and the winged insect,302What the flower owes to the bee,303And how far the bee is indebted to the flower,303A panegyric upon the bee, which gives new life to vegetation,304The bee's visit to the flower, and what takes place,305It gives and it receives; evening and morning,306How the bee suffers from cold, keen airs,307"Farewell, madam, and many thanks!"308CHAPTER VIII.—THE BEES AS ARCHITECTS: THE CITY.Artistic character of the bee-hive,311Its government democratic, or a modified constitutional monarchy,312The writer traces the foundation and erection of the hive,313Its division into cells, and their differences of construction,314The thoughtful skill of the builders illustrated,315As in their improvised defence against the ravages of the Sphinx Atropos,316Which may be accepted as a proof of the intelligence of insects as distinguished from instinct,317CHAPTER IX.—HOW THE BEES CREATE THE PEOPLE AND THE COMMON MOTHER.Care of the bee for the nymph, or larva,321As it grows, so does its wonderful organization develop,322Special care bestowed on the future queen,323The queen bee has attributes of its own,324Her rage, when she becomes aware of the existence of possible rivals,325The community divided between the old love and the new,325An emigration takes place,325And a new commonwealth is established,326Sometimes the old queen and the new encounter one another,327In which case a deadly combat ensues,328And the victor becomes the idol of the people,328If both perish, the community, in a state of great excitement, proceed to feed and bring up another,329Whom they will guard with loving loyalty,329CONCLUSION.A comparison, and a contrast, between the bee and the ant,333All insects teach certain noteworthy lessons,334And, primarily, a reverence for life,335Various anecdotes from the writer's own experience are here brought forward, in defence of the thesis that life is more precious than science,336Illustrative Notes,341

NOTE 7.—Book ii., Chap. i.

Swammerdam.—We refer to the inaugurator and martyr of our science, the creator of the instrument which has enabled men to follow up his discoveries,—a great inventor in many senses,—specially for the preparation of anatomical specimens. The reader should study hisBiblia Naturæ, in Boerhaave's edition, ornamented with fine illustrations (two vols. folio), and not in the incomplete French abridgment, published in theMémoiresof the Academy of Dijon, which gives the scientific results, but no trace of the man.

We do not undertake to write the history of Entomology. A good abridgment will be found at the end of M. Th. Lacordaire'sIntroduction à l'Entomologie.

NOTE 8.—Book ii., Chap. iv.

The Insect as Man's Auxiliary.—The ingenious work which I here confute, and which, assuredly, cannot be read with gratification, is entitled,—Les Insectes, ou Réflexions d'un amateur de la chasse aux petits oiseaux, par E. Gand,Lecture faite à l'Académie d'Amiens(26th December 1856).

A remark which I make a few pages further on, in reference to the necessity of a popular teaching of natural history, well deserves to gain attention. The wealth and morality of the world would be doubled if this teaching could be universal. M. Emile Blanchard's important work,Zoologie Agricole(in folio, 1854), gives the very useful history of the principal insects injurious to our ordinary or ornamental plants. M. Pouchet, in his excellentMémoireon the Cockchafer, enumerates the principal authors who have described the destructive insects. The United States Congress has entrusted to Mr. Harris the preparation of a history of them.

NOTE 9.—Book ii., Chap. v.

Light and Colour.—My description of tropical climates is borrowed from a large number of travellers,—Humboldt, Azara, Auguste, Saint-Hilaire, Castelneau, Weddell, Charles Waterton, and others. For Brazil and Guiana,I have been greatly indebted to the exceeding courtesy of M. Ferdinand Denis, whose knowledge of those countries is so perfect.

Paris possesses several fine collections of insects, besides that of the Museum. One of the best-known is Doctor Bois Duval's (lepidoptera). An establishment exclusively devoted to the sale of insects may be found at No. 17 Rue des Saints-Pères. The magnificent collection to which I refer on page 176, is that of M. Douë, who most readily showed it to us, and explained it with infinite complaisance.

The anecdote which concludes chapter xii. (The Ornament of Living Flames) is related, in reference to the women of Santa Cruz in Bolivia, by the always accurate Dr. Weddell. The Indian phrase, "Replace it whence thou borrowedst it," is recorded by Waterton.

NOTE 10.—Book ii., Chap. viii.

Renovation of Human Arts by Study of the Insect.—Who has not seen that for a long time the art of decoration has made no progress, does but incessantly repeat itself? When a particular subject has lasted ten years, men think to rejuvenate it with a few variations. In a life of half a century I have several times seen this rotation of fashion, which would appear singularly monotonous if we did not possess in so high a degree the gift of forgetfulness.

The decorative art, instead of seeking its renovation in the things of old, would profit greatly by drawing its inspiration from the infinity of beauties distributed throughout Nature. They abound and superabound:—

1st, In the highly accented forms of tropical plants. Ours only produce their effect in masses, and on a grand scale.

2nd, In those of a great number of the lower animals, radiata, and others; in many of the little floating molluscs, living and imperceptible flowers, the design of which, when enlarged, might suggest some very original ideas.

3rd, In certain parts of the most despised creatures; as, for example, in the eyes of the fly.

4th, In the forms, designs, and colours one detects in the thickness of the living tissue; as, for example, on lifting with the scalpel the strata of the wing-sheath of the beetles. Nature, which has so embellished the surface, has hidden, perhaps, still more beauty in the depth. Nothing is finer than the vital fluids, when seen in the mobility of their circulation, and in the delicate canals where that circulation is accomplished and defined. They speak to us less eloquently, and impress us less forcibly by the splendour of the glittering leaves among which they circulate, than by the expressive forms in which we divine the mystery of their life. These are their visible energies.

NOTE 11.—Book ii., Chaps. ix. and x.

The Spider.—These two chapters are mainly the result of our own observations. We have profited, however, by several authorities; especially by the capital and classical work, the grand labour of Walckenaër,—which is of importance both for the description, classification, and moral history of the Spiders.

Azara tells us that in Paraguay the natives spin the cocoon of a great orange-coloured spider fully an inch in diameter. Sir George Staunton, the English ambassador to China, in his "Travels in Java" (vol. i., p. 343) informs us that the epeiras of Asia weave such stout webs that they can only be cut with a sharp-edged instrument; at the Bermudas, their webs are capable of arresting the progress of a bird as big as a thrush (Richard Stafford,Coll. Acad., ii., p. 156).

Doctor Lemercier, our learned bibliographer, has lent to me (from his personal collection) a rare and very cleverbrochureby Quatrefages on the hygrometrical sensibility of spiders, on their prescience of variations of the temperature—which we might very well turn to advantage—and on the skilful exposure of their webs.

The formation of their beautiful and poetical autumn-webs, which arecalledVirgin's Threads, is very clearly explained by Des Étang, in theMémoires de la Société Agricole de Troyes, for 1839.

In reference to the spider's most terrible enemy, the ichneumon, some curious details are given in the fourth volume of theMemoirsof the American Society. In order to preserve it for its little ones, it does not kill its victim, but, if one may so speak, etherizes it by pricking it, and distilling into the wound a venom which apparently paralyzes it.

My remarks on the terror of the male in his amorous advances are based upon those of De Geer, and Lepelletier, in theNouveau Bulletin de la Société Philomathique, pt. 67, p. 257.

Finally, the master-work of the spider, the ingeniously constructed house and door of theMygaleof Corsica, has been completely described and drawn by an observer whom one can trust implicitly,—Audouin (followed by Walckenaër, and others).

NOTE 12.-Book iii., Chap. i.

The Termites.—The beautiful illustrations of Smeathman would merit reproduction, and the translation of his book (ed. 1784), now very rarely met with, ought to be reprinted. The interesting additional details collected by Azara, Auguste, Saint-Hilaire, Castelneau, and others, might be added, so as to make a complete monograph.

It is by no means a matter of slight import to recognize that the true andgrand principle of art, so long misunderstood in the Middle Ages, has been always followed to the very letter by creatures of so low an order, in their surprising constructions.

The fact I have related in reference to the subterranean mining of Valencia by the termites, will be found in Humboldt's "Travels in Equinoctial America."

As for La Rochelle, read the interesting chapter in M. de Quatrefages'Souvenirs d'un Naturaliste.

NOTE 13.—Book iii., Chap. ii.

The Ants.—The migrations of the tropical ants, say Azara and Lacordaire, sometimes last over two or three days. They are to be compared in continuousness and frightful numbers only to the clouds of pigeons which, in North America, obscure the sky for several days in succession (see Audubon). Lund (Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 1831, vol. xxiii., p. 113) gives a curious picture of these ant-migrations. They are terribly warlike, and the Americans amuse themselves by opposing in a duel thevisiting ant(Atta) to theAraraaant. The latter, though the weaker, prevails through the potency of its poison.

As for our European ants, my brother-in-law, M. Hippolyte Mialaret, transmits to me a curious fact, which, I believe, has not before been observed. He gave them a medley of various kinds of grain,—wheat, barley, rye,—which they employed in their buildings. Having opened the ant-hill, he found the grains carefully classified, and distributed on different stories,—wheat, for example, on the second, barley on the third,—the different kinds being nowhere mixed.

An excellent Italian dissertation by M. Giuseppe Gené would induce one to believe Huber mistaken in his assertion that the mother ant can by her unaided self found a community. After her fecundation she retires into a corner, where she plucks off her wings, and waits. There some prowling ants discover, feel, and recognize her, her and her eggs sown on the ground, with much prudence and even visible mistrust. Afterwards they explore the country round about with an infinite circumspection, always coming back to the mother, and hesitating long before they decide. At length, their numbers increasing, they definitively adopt her, and set to work.

The indomitable perseverance of the ants is celebrated in a beautiful Oriental legend of I know not what Asiatic prince,—Tamerlane, I believe. Beaten and defeated several times in one campaign, he was seated, almost despairing, in the depth of his tent. An ant mounted the side. Several times he made it drop, but it invariably reascended. He was curious to see how long it would persevere, and twenty-four times threw it to the groundwithout discouraging it. Then he grew tired, and moreover he was full of admiration. The ant conquered. So he said: "Let us imitate it. We too will conquer as the ant has done." But for the ant, the hero had missed the Empire of Asia.

NOTE 14.—Book iii., Chap. iii.

Flocks of the Ants.—Nearly every plant nourishes grubs, which are embellished with the most varied, and frequently the most dazzling colours. The rose-tree aphis, when I examined it through a microscope, seemed to me of a very pleasant bright green. Thrown on its back, it displayed a very big belly, and a very small ungainly head, which appeared to be neither more nor less than a sucker, while it agitated all its limbs. On the whole, I took it to be an innocent creature, which should inspire no repugnant feeling. One can understand how the ants absorb the honey-dew upon its body. (See Bonnet and others, in reference to their prodigious fecundity.)

NOTE 15.—Book iii., Chap. v.

The Wasps.—Before speaking of this terrible species, in which, perhaps, we see revealed the loftiest energy of nature, I ought to have spoken of its modest neighbour, the drone. Réaumur, who is not sufficiently known as a writer, and who frequently displays much grace of style, says, very pleasingly, that the poor drones, in their rough little societies, when compared with the royal communities of the wasps and bees, are mere rustics or savages, andtheir nests so many hamlets, but that we find a pleasure, even after having visited great capitals, in resting our eyes on the simplicity of villages and villagers. (Réaumur,Mémoires, vol. vi., p. iii. preface, and p. 4 text.) Notwithstanding their simplicity, the drones are industrious, and have their characteristic manners and virtues. The poor males, so despised elsewhere, are more happily employed here in a society where the lofty speciality of art, not being so strikingly developed in the females, proves less humiliating; they are almost the equals of their spouses, who do not massacre them, as the wasps and bees do their destined husbands.

NOTE 16.—Book iii., Chap. viii.

The Wax-making Bees. An Aristocracy of Artists.—I here follow, in the main, the authority of M. Debeauvoys, in hisGuide de l'Apiculteur("The Bee-keeper's Manual"), ed. 1853. In this little but important book he has made the all-important distinction which escaped Huber's notice, and separated the great wax-making architects from the little gleaners and nurses. But I ask his permission to trust rather to M. Dujardin on the general character of the bees. They are, undoubtedly, choleric, and of a very dry temperament; the liqueurs and perfumes of the flowers excite them, and compel them frequently to quench their thirst. But in themselves they are sufficiently gentle, and can even be tamed. M. Dujardin, having renewed every day the provisions of a poor hive, was readily recognized by the bees, who flew towards him, and ran over his hands without stinging him. The annual destruction which they consummate of their males is a common law with them; the wasps, and other necessitous tribes, living in dread of famine at the epoch when the flowers disappear. In America they are looked upon as the sign of civilization. The Indians see in the bee the type of the white race, and in the buffalo the precursor of the red. (Washington Irving, "Tour in the Prairies.")

The bees, as sisters and aunts, remind one of the Germany of Tacitus:—"The aunt is there held in higher esteem than the mother." It must have resembled a country of bees.

M. Pouchet, whom I have already cited several times, has been good enough to furnish me with a very interesting anecdote of the mason-bees:—

"In Egypt and Nubia, which I traversed some few months ago, these hymenoptera and their buildings are so abundant that the ceilings of certain temples and those of some hypogea are entirely covered with them, and they absolutely mask the sculptures and hieroglyphics. These nests frequently form there a succession of layers; and in certain localities they are superimposed one upon another in sufficient numbers to form a kind of stalactite suspended to the vaulted roofs of the monuments. In their construction the bee makes use of Nile mud only; and when she has deposited therein her progeny, she seals them up with a delicately wrought cover, which the young bee, after having undergone its various metamorphoses, lifts off and flies away. But these nests are often broken up by a species of lizard, which, by means of its singularly sharp nails, climbs to the ceilings. There it wages incessant war against the mason-bees while they are building their nests, or rather it may be seen crashing through the walls to devour their young progeny."

NOTE 17.—Conclusion,p. 337.

A Feminine Intuition.—A great question of method which the future will clear up, is, to know how far woman will one day master the sciences of life, and to what extent the study of these sciences will be shared between the two sexes. If sympathy for animals, long and patient tenderness, the persevering observation of the delicatest objects, were the only qualities which this study demanded, it would seem as if woman ought to make the best naturalist. But the life-sciences have another and a far gloomier aspect, which repels and affrights; and it is so, because they are at the same time the sciences of death.

However, in this very century, the grand and leading discovery, all-important for the knowledge of the higher insects, belongs to a maiden, the daughter of a scientific naturalist of French Switzerland, Mademoiselle Jurine. She has found that the bee-workers, who were thought to beneuters(of neither the one nor the other sex), were really females, attenuated by their exceedinglynarrow cradles and inferior regimen. Now, as these workers form nearly the whole people (except five or six bred as queens, and a few hundred males), it follows that the hive of twenty or thirty thousand bees is female. Thus the predominance of the feminine sex, the general law of insect life, has obtained its supreme confirmation. There areno neuters; neither among the bees, nor the ants, nor all the superior tribes of insects. The males are a small exception, a secondary accident. I feel able to assert that, on the whole,the insect is female.

Mademoiselle Jurine's discovery has also revealed to us the true character of the maternity of adoption, an admirably original characteristic of these insects, and the elevated law of disinterestedness and sacrifice which is the ennoblement of their communities.

An undoubtedly inferior, but still distinguished merit to that of accomplishing great discoveries, is that of representing animals to us by pen or pencil in their true forms, their movements, and the general harmony of the things with which they are associated. No art seems to belong more naturally to woman. A woman has commenced it.

The illustrious Audubon has won just admiration for his representation of the bird in its complete harmonies, its animal and vegetable medium, on the plants which feed, near the enemy which assails it. But it has been too generally forgotten that the model of his harmonious paintings, which present us with so true a picture of life, was furnished by a woman, Sybille de Mérian. Her handsome volume (Métamorphose des Insectes de Surinam, folio, in three languages, ed. 1705), was the first in which this admirable method was invented and skilfully applied.

She is called "Mademoiselle," though she was married. The name of "dame" was in her time still restricted to women of noble birth. And she remains "Mademoiselle;" is never cited except under her maiden name. Her books, from their pure science and great perseverance, give one the idea of a person lifted above the world of persons, and wholly devoted to art and nature.

I have dedicated to her a word or two, but without speaking of her life. A native of Bâle, the daughter, sister, and mother of celebrated engravers, and herself an excellent painter of flowers upon velvet, she long resided at Frankfort and Nurenberg. She experienced great misfortunes, her husband being ruined and having separated from her. She then sought refuge in a mystical society, analogous to that which had formerly consoled Swammerdam. The religious spark of the new science,the theology of insects, as a contemporary terms it, here produced a strong impression on her mind. She was acquainted with Swammerdam's great idea, the unity of metamorphoses, and with that which Malpighi had flung in the face of astonished Europe in his book on the silkworm: "Insects have a heart."

What! they have a heart, like us! Which, like ours, throbs and stirs atthe impulse of their desires, their fears, or their passions! How touching an idea! How well adapted to influence a woman!—But is this a fact? Many long denied it, but doubt has been impossible since the truth was demonstrated in 1824 in M. Strauss's treatise on "The Cockchafer."

Madame de Mérian, then, started from the silkworm. But her curiosity and artistic eagerness embraced everything. Contrasted with her dull and sombre Germany, Holland, with its rich American and Oriental collections, appeared to her like the great museum of the tropics. There she established herself, and with her pencil made its collections her own. Those faëry cemeteries, glittering with the beauty of the dead, did but whet in her the desire to investigate life in the region where it most luxuriates. At the age of fifty-four she set out for Guiana; and, during a two years' residence in its dangerous climate, collected the drawings and paintings which were to inaugurate art in natural history.

In this branch of labour, the stumbling-block of the artist, who is an artist and nothing more, is that he may do very well, but make Nature coquettish, add the pretty to the beautiful, and flourish those graces and daintinesses which secure for a scientific treatise the favour of fashionable ladies. Nothing of this kind is discernible in the work of Sybille de Mérian, but on every page a noble vigour, a masculine gravity, a courageous simplicity. At the same time, a close inspection, especially of the illustrations coloured by her own hand, discovers in the softness, breadth, and fulness of the plants, their lustrous and velvety freshness,—the tones either dead or enamelled, and, as it were, flowered, which the insects offer,—the tender, conscientious hand of a woman who has laboured upon the whole with a reverence inspired by love.

We have seen (p. 180), in our chapter on theFire-Flies, the astonishment of the timid German in a world so new, when the savages brought her its living materials,—venomous herbs, lizards, and snakes, and fantastic serpents. But the very strangeness of this nature, the emotions of the painter trembling before her models, the restless attention with which she sought to seize the changeful physiognomy and mysterious manners, while keenly agitating her heart, did but awaken her genius. Never satisfied by her representations of fugitive realities, she believed she could make each insect properly known only by painting it under all its forms (caterpillar, nymph, butterfly). And this not contenting her, she placed beneath it the vegetable on which it fed, and by its side the lizard, serpent, or spider which fed uponit. Thus, the mutuality and exchange of nature was clearly shown; you saw clearly that formidable circulation, which, in tropical climates, is so rapid. Each of those fine plates, so harmonious and so complete, instructs not only by its truthful details, but inspires a profound sympathy with life, which is a very different and much more valuable teaching.

One thing strikes me, which, however, this love explains. She has paintedside by side those creatures which devour one another. They draw close together, each faces its antagonist, and you conclude that a frightful duel is imminent. But she has generally concealed the tragic struggle. She has shrunk from painting death.

How much more terrible would have been her task had she advanced further, had she opened and dissected her models, and forced her feminine pencil to the lugubrious painting of anatomical detail!

And here we recognize the precise limit at which women are arrested in the study of the natural sciences. They are incapable of confronting it onbothsides. Michael Angelo has finely said:—"Death and life are but one. They are the work of the same master and the same hand." But women do not submit. Between them and death no compact is possible. This is very easily understood; they themselvesarelife in all its prolific charm. They are born to give it. Whatever breaks the charm is a horror to them. Death, and especially pain, are not only antipathic, but almost incomprehensible. They feel that only happiness and joy should attend upon woman. Pain inflicted by a woman's hand appears to them very justly as a horrible contradiction.

In the natural sciences there are three things they may master, the three things of life: theincubationof the new being,—that is, the tenderness of its earliest care; theeducation, thenourishment(to speak as our fathers did) of the young adults; finally, theobservationof manners, and the subtle intelligence of means of inter-communication with all species. By the aid of these three woman's arts, man may conciliate and gradually appropriate the inferior species, and even many of the insect species. To them belong entirely the arts of domestication. If childhood were less cruel, or at least not harshly insensible, it might share these womanly cares. For Woman, as a soft and tender child, full of pity, is the mediator of all nature.

But as for death, as for pain, as for the lights which science draws from them, do not speak of them to Woman. Here she halts, leaves you on the road, and will go no further forward.

She asserts—and the assertion may appear of some real weight, even to the sedatest minds—that science, of late years, has marched by two contrary roads: on the one hand, demonstrating by the study of manners and of organs that animals are not a world apart, but far more like ourselves than had been generally supposed; and on the other, when it has so clearly proved their great resemblance, and consequently their capacity of suffering, it ordains that we shall inflict upon them the most exquisite and most cruelly protracted agonies.

Science, on this terrible side, closes itself more and more against women. Nature, while inviting them to penetrate it, checks them at the same time by their excessive tenderness of feeling, and by the reverence for life with which she herself has inspired them.

Of all creatures, insects seemed the least worthy of being trained (or domesticated). They were sought only for their colours. Nevertheless, whoever sees in the pursuit nothing but a simple pleasure, will perhaps reflect for a moment when he learns that impaled insects frequently endure their torture for whole years! (See Lemahoux, and, particularly, the excellentBulletin de la Société Protectrice des Animaux, September and October 1856.)

In proportion as women understand the maternal instincts of the creatures I have described, their infinite tenderness, and their ingenious prevision for the objects of their love, it will become impossible for mothers to immolatethesemothers, and put them to the torture!

Last Words.

The originating sentiment of the studies of which this book is the outcome, is also that which induced their suspension. Their primary attraction was found in Huber's revelation, in his vivid manifestation of the individuality of the insect. But that which at the first glance had seemed so paradoxical and incredible, was discovered, when verified, to fall below the reality. The spectacle of so many labours and efforts for the common good, the sight of all these meritorious existences, imposes a duty upon our conscience, and renders it more and more difficult to treat as athingthe being which wills, and toils, and loves!

Analysis of Subjects.

INTRODUCTION.I. THE LIVING INFINITE.The writer is moved by the voices of the Insect World,17Which leads him to reflect on its infinite numbers,18He refers to his loving study of the Bird,19But the Bird had a language; has the Insect?,19In many respects, it is an enigma which Man cannot read,20The Insect, however, has much to plead in self-defence,21And between it and Man the interpreter must be Love,22II. OUR STUDIES AT PARIS AND IN SWITZERLAND.How the writer was assisted by his wife in his study of the Insect,23Woman is well adapted for such a study; and why?,24Her tact, delicate touch, and fine perception fit her for microscopical investigations,24The writer seeks a retirement near Lucerne,25The surrounding scenery is described,26And he bursts into a glowing panegyric on the Alps,27He discourses on the communion between Nature and the human soul,28This leads him to a description of a forest scene,29In which he recognizes the presence of the insect life,30A constant conflict is maintained between the insect and the plant, the latter being aided by the bird,30In the forest, then, lurks a hidden world,31The interior of an ant-hill is suddenly revealed,32And the effects become visible of the formic acid,33Reflections suggested by the ruined ant-hill,34III. OUR STUDIES AT FONTAINEBLEAU.The writer resolves to attempt an explanation of the Insect World,36For such a task Fontainebleau offers peculiar facilities,37A description is given of the characteristics of the place,38It has had a peculiar charm for many illustrious men,41Its individuality is distinct,42In the course of a day it presents various changes,43Yet throughout all a certain sameness is preserved,44This is expressed by the "genius loci,",45The voices of the forest,46Its suitability as a place for reflection,47Its suggestiveness; the very oaks enforce a lesson of perseverance,48Its life centres in its quarrymen and its ants,49The contrast between their several labours,50Nature and the Individual,51The writer enters upon the composition of the present book,52BOOK THE FIRST.—METAMORPHOSIS.CHAPTER I.—TERROR AND REPUGNANCE IN CHILDHOOD.Extract from a Journal written by Madame Michelet,57In which she describes a visit to the home of her childhood,58Painful impressions produced by the ravages of the insect,59The writer comments on the repugnance with which the insect is viewed by childhood,60This repugnance is not shared by Nature,61Which protects and facilitates it in its work,62On account of its vast importance,63CHAPTER II.—COMPASSION.The artist Gros reproached a young man for cruelty towards a butterfly,67Lyonnet, the naturalist, equally insisted on tenderness towards even the lowest forms of life,68The writer records his adventure with a drone, which he thought he had killed, in a moment of petulance,69His happiness on seeing the insect revive,70Begins to study the insect seriously on a Swiss tour,70Another extract from Madame Michelet's Journal,71In which is described the author's retreat at Montreux, on the shore of the Lake of Geneva,72In one of her walks she observes a combat between a stag-beetle and a beetle of inferior size,73The stag-beetle is captured for the purpose of examination,73Effect produced upon it by the vapour of ether,74Regret expressed at having terminated its existence,75CHAPTER III.—WORLD-BUILDERS.The worldoutsidethe terrestrial world,79The world of the infinitely little; the architects of ocean,80The immense works accomplished by the lower organisms,81They build up reefs, banks, islands,82The manufacture of chalk described,83How a coral-island is gradually developed,83,84Examples of the labours of the coral animals,85CHAPTER IV.—LOVE AND DEATH.Above these organisms in the scale of creation comes the insect,89Its individuality is explained; its mode of reproduction,90The insect-mother dies in producing her offspring,91But with extraordinary sagacity has provided for its support and protection,92Examples given of this wonderful maternal provision,93The labours of the mother-bee explained,94Reference to the "Nymphs of Fontainebleau,"95CHAPTER V.—THE ORPHAN: ITS FEEBLENESS.The insect enters upon life naked and necessitous,99But all its wants have been carefully anticipated,100Night, however, is the great protection of the embryo,101How it endeavours to guard against cold,102In its necessities originate its various industries,103After a time comes its season of trial,104Of which it exhibits a marvellous presentiment, and for which it assiduously prepares,105CHAPTER VI.—THE MUMMY, NYMPH, OR CHRYSALIS.The meaning of the insect to the ancient Egyptians,109The beetle was regarded as a symbol of Eternity,110Has modern science swept aside the ancient poetry?110That it is not so, is shown by Réaumur's discoveries,111Which show us the marvellous changes the insect undergoes,112And how in each stage of growth the next is prefigured,113However numerous or great the changes, the individuality is preserved,114A future life is provided for, as in the case of the human embryo,115CHAPTER VII.—THE PHŒNIX.Out of gloom and obscurity emerges light,119The metamorphosis takes place, but the insect is not at a loss,120Nature furnishes each species with all its needs for the new life,121Its vital intensity is revealed by the brightness of its colouring,122Insects of gay attire are found in every region,123Even among the snows of the Alpine peaks,124BOOK THE SECOND.—MISSION AND ARTS OF THE INSECT.CHAPTER I.—SWAMMERDAM.The secret of the Insect World first discovered by Swammerdam,129A comparison instituted between him and Galileo,130His early years, his favourite occupations, and his collections of insects,131,132To assist him in his investigations he invented the microscope,133His patient labours rewarded by great discoveries,134Yet in his own country he was not honoured; it was in France that his work met with due appreciation,135Ardent devotion to science brings on premature decay,136Dark clouds overcast his later years,137He died at the age of three and forty,138His work is carried on by Leuwenhoek and Malpighi,139CHAPTER II.—THE MICROSCOPE: HAS THE INSECT A PHYSIOGNOMY?In the infinitely little lurks a great attraction for man,143Hence its study should be systematically undertaken,144Michelet applies himself to his microscope,145And examines the structure of an insect's wing,146Next, he studies the organization of the ant,147He describes what he saw,148A complex apparatus, both for action and defence,150What it is which separates us from the insect,151CHAPTER III.—THE INSECT AS THE AGENT OF NATURE IN THE ACCELERATION OF DEATH AND LIFE.The language of the insect in its immense energy,155A glance is directed at the order of Nature,156And it is shown that all forms of life must be kept within certain limits,156Hence, one race preys upon another, and all Nature is a scene of incessant combat,157In this work of destruction, and purification, the Bird and the Insect play an important part,158The Coleoptera bring their surprising energies to the task,159The insect-tribes are therefore great sanitary agents,160The great Guiana ants afford an illustration,161And the beneficent labours of the spider have secured the respect of the Siberians,162CHAPTER IV.—THE INSECT AS MAN'S AUXILIARY.The want of insect-labour induced the potato disease,165Such is the dictum of an author, who thinks that the multiplication of small birds has been destructive to insect-life; but no such multiplication of birds has taken place, nor any such destruction of insects,165,166The Bird and the Insect are the joint purifiers of creation,167Some species of insects should be carefully preserved,167A sketch is given of their multifarious labours,168Of the services rendered by the scavenger-insects,169Of the value of certain insects as food,170As, for instance, in the case of the locust,171The law of retaliation illustrated,172CHAPTER V.—A PHANTASMAGORIA OF LIGHT AND COLOUR.How does the insect express its intensity of vital force?175In various ways, but specially through its glowing hues,176Which are displayed with a profusion that astonishes and almost overcomes the observer,177But are not inconsistent with an ingenious mimicry,177A diversion is made to the tropical forest,178Where the insect life is seen in its most splendid developments,179Like winged flames they haunt the leafy shades,180The fire-fly lights up the gloom, and also furnishes woman's beauty with a living ornament,181,182CHAPTER VI.—THE SILKWORM.The exquisite structure of a woman's hair enlarged upon,185What can compare with it? Only the silkworm's thread,186Peculiar charm attending the silkworm's labours,186And the preciousness of the silken product,187Something is said about the use of silk in Mediæval France,188And on its excellence and fitness as a garment for Beauty,189CHAPTER VII.—INSTRUMENTS OF THE INSECT: AND ITS CHEMICAL ENERGIES, AS IN THE COCHINEAL AND THE CANTHARIDES.Hitherto the writer has treated only of the silk of the bombyx,193He now commends the culture of other silk-spinning species,194And is led to speak of the ingenious instruments with which insects are provided,194And of their general powers and properties,195Something is said about their weapons,196And the malalis is spoken of,197CHAPTER VIII.—ON THE RENOVATION OF OUR ARTS BY THE STUDY OF THE INSECT.The Fine Arts would profit by a close study of the insect,201Much might be learned, for instance, from the cockchafer's wing,202Nature is full of suggestive beauty,203Observe the enamels of the cicindela,204And those of the scarabæi,205Instead of copying from antique absurdities, go then to the insect-collector's cabinet,206And its treasures will inspire the artist with new ideas,207CHAPTER IX.—THE SPIDER—INDUSTRY—STANDING STILL.We come to the consideration of the spider,211Whose life is a lottery, and which is branded with ugliness,212It is, however, the type of the persevering worker,213An anecdote in illustration of its character,214Its web, and the mode of its construction, described,215Prudence and patience the characteristics of the spider,216All animals live by prey, and the spider has its foes,217Its existence is confined within a narrow circle,218And is easily terminated,219CHAPTER X.—THE HOME AND LOVES OF THE SPIDER.Admirable construction of its web,223A glance at the retreat of the Agelena,224Still greater ingenuity is shown by the Mygale,225In the web lurks the weaver, always expectant,225A sensitive being, and subject to fancies of terror,227In his moments of love he is timorous and suspicious,228How he is affected by musical sounds,229BOOK THE THIRD.—COMMUNITIES OF INSECTS.CHAPTER I.—THE TERMITES, OR WHITE ANTS.The habitations of the termites, erroneously called White Ants, described, both externally and internally,235,236A wonderful degree of skill shown in the erection of the great dome,237Yet the builders labour under specially difficult circumstances,238Their queen's fecundity; her offspring are tenderly treated,239Their numbers would be a terror to man, were they not checked by many enemies,240An illustration is given of their terrible ravages,241CHAPTER II.—THE ANTS:—THEIR DOMESTIC ECONOMY—THEIR NUPTIALS.Value of the ants as purifying and cleansing agents,245An incident at Barbadoes,246The carpenter-ants, and their ingenuity, described,247Singular affection which they display for the young,251They watch over them with incessant vigilance; their mode of inter-communication,251A picture is given of the economy of an ant-hill,252In their labours the ants solve numerous problems by sheer intuition,253Their nuptials described as an idyllic poem,254What remained in the morning,255CHAPTER III.—THE ANTS: THEIR FLOCKS AND THEIR SLAVES.The writer's pain at discovering among the ants the existence of slavery,259Considerations which induced him to continue his studies,260He finds that the ants keep their "herds of cattle,"261And discovers a reason for their apparent encouragement of slavery,262Mixed communities of ants; workers and warriors,263The workers are in reality the masters, though they seem to be slaves,264A campaign described; red against black,265Ant-societies regulated on the principle of division of labour,266Their species undergo modifications in special circumstances,267The influence of intellect over brute force exemplified,268CHAPTER IV.—THE ANTS: CIVIL WAR—EXTERMINATION OF THE COMMUNITY.It is the punishment of the tyrant that he cannot readily set free his captive,271The caged nightingale, and the clod of earth,272This clod proves to contain a republic of carpenter-ants,272An effort is made to found a new community; difficulties in the way,273An encounter between the carpenter-ants and some mason-ants,274In which the victory is on the side of the Little,275Who carry off the young of the conquered,276A digression comments on the helplessness of the nymph, or larva,277And points out its exceeding suffering in the hands of a victorious enemy,278The writer is shocked by the relentless cruelty of the conquerors,279Who have left but one poor fugitive to mourn the death of his companions,280CHAPTER V.—THE WASPS: THEIR FURY OF IMPROVISATION.Sensation caused by the intrusion of a wasp,283A panegyric on a much-abused insect,284Excessive industry of the wasp,285It works, first, as a paper manufacturer; and next, as a mason,285It builds its city with curious forethought and ingenuity,286The mother-wasp, a remarkable example of self-sacrifice,287Wasps distinguished by their patriotic enthusiasm,288At the approach of winter they dissolve the commonwealth,289CHAPTER VI.—"THE BEES" OF VIRGIL.The Virgilian fable of Aristæus misunderstood,293Intended by the poet as a parable of immortality,294The writer was accidentally led to an understanding of its true significance,295A visit to the cemetery of Père-Lachaise,295Here certain lonely graves were haunted by a flight of bees,296Yet they were not true bees; they were two-winged,297They were "the Bees" of which Virgil had sung,298CHAPTER VII.—THE BEE IN THE FIELDS.Contrast between the Plant and the Animal,301Yet the one life in some points approaches the other, and a certain sympathy exists between the flower and the winged insect,302What the flower owes to the bee,303And how far the bee is indebted to the flower,303A panegyric upon the bee, which gives new life to vegetation,304The bee's visit to the flower, and what takes place,305It gives and it receives; evening and morning,306How the bee suffers from cold, keen airs,307"Farewell, madam, and many thanks!"308CHAPTER VIII.—THE BEES AS ARCHITECTS: THE CITY.Artistic character of the bee-hive,311Its government democratic, or a modified constitutional monarchy,312The writer traces the foundation and erection of the hive,313Its division into cells, and their differences of construction,314The thoughtful skill of the builders illustrated,315As in their improvised defence against the ravages of the Sphinx Atropos,316Which may be accepted as a proof of the intelligence of insects as distinguished from instinct,317CHAPTER IX.—HOW THE BEES CREATE THE PEOPLE AND THE COMMON MOTHER.Care of the bee for the nymph, or larva,321As it grows, so does its wonderful organization develop,322Special care bestowed on the future queen,323The queen bee has attributes of its own,324Her rage, when she becomes aware of the existence of possible rivals,325The community divided between the old love and the new,325An emigration takes place,325And a new commonwealth is established,326Sometimes the old queen and the new encounter one another,327In which case a deadly combat ensues,328And the victor becomes the idol of the people,328If both perish, the community, in a state of great excitement, proceed to feed and bring up another,329Whom they will guard with loving loyalty,329CONCLUSION.A comparison, and a contrast, between the bee and the ant,333All insects teach certain noteworthy lessons,334And, primarily, a reverence for life,335Various anecdotes from the writer's own experience are here brought forward, in defence of the thesis that life is more precious than science,336Illustrative Notes,341

INTRODUCTION.

I. THE LIVING INFINITE.

The writer is moved by the voices of the Insect World,17

Which leads him to reflect on its infinite numbers,18

He refers to his loving study of the Bird,19

But the Bird had a language; has the Insect?,19

In many respects, it is an enigma which Man cannot read,20

The Insect, however, has much to plead in self-defence,21

And between it and Man the interpreter must be Love,22

II. OUR STUDIES AT PARIS AND IN SWITZERLAND.

How the writer was assisted by his wife in his study of the Insect,23

Woman is well adapted for such a study; and why?,24

Her tact, delicate touch, and fine perception fit her for microscopical investigations,24

The writer seeks a retirement near Lucerne,25

The surrounding scenery is described,26

And he bursts into a glowing panegyric on the Alps,27

He discourses on the communion between Nature and the human soul,28

This leads him to a description of a forest scene,29

In which he recognizes the presence of the insect life,30

A constant conflict is maintained between the insect and the plant, the latter being aided by the bird,30

In the forest, then, lurks a hidden world,31

The interior of an ant-hill is suddenly revealed,32

And the effects become visible of the formic acid,33

Reflections suggested by the ruined ant-hill,34

III. OUR STUDIES AT FONTAINEBLEAU.

The writer resolves to attempt an explanation of the Insect World,36

For such a task Fontainebleau offers peculiar facilities,37

A description is given of the characteristics of the place,38

It has had a peculiar charm for many illustrious men,41

Its individuality is distinct,42

In the course of a day it presents various changes,43

Yet throughout all a certain sameness is preserved,44

This is expressed by the "genius loci,",45

The voices of the forest,46

Its suitability as a place for reflection,47

Its suggestiveness; the very oaks enforce a lesson of perseverance,48

Its life centres in its quarrymen and its ants,49

The contrast between their several labours,50

Nature and the Individual,51

The writer enters upon the composition of the present book,52

BOOK THE FIRST.—METAMORPHOSIS.

CHAPTER I.—TERROR AND REPUGNANCE IN CHILDHOOD.

Extract from a Journal written by Madame Michelet,57

In which she describes a visit to the home of her childhood,58

Painful impressions produced by the ravages of the insect,59

The writer comments on the repugnance with which the insect is viewed by childhood,60

This repugnance is not shared by Nature,61

Which protects and facilitates it in its work,62

On account of its vast importance,63

CHAPTER II.—COMPASSION.

The artist Gros reproached a young man for cruelty towards a butterfly,67

Lyonnet, the naturalist, equally insisted on tenderness towards even the lowest forms of life,68

The writer records his adventure with a drone, which he thought he had killed, in a moment of petulance,69

His happiness on seeing the insect revive,70

Begins to study the insect seriously on a Swiss tour,70

Another extract from Madame Michelet's Journal,71

In which is described the author's retreat at Montreux, on the shore of the Lake of Geneva,72

In one of her walks she observes a combat between a stag-beetle and a beetle of inferior size,73

The stag-beetle is captured for the purpose of examination,73

Effect produced upon it by the vapour of ether,74

Regret expressed at having terminated its existence,75

CHAPTER III.—WORLD-BUILDERS.

The worldoutsidethe terrestrial world,79

The world of the infinitely little; the architects of ocean,80

The immense works accomplished by the lower organisms,81

They build up reefs, banks, islands,82

The manufacture of chalk described,83

How a coral-island is gradually developed,83,84

Examples of the labours of the coral animals,85

CHAPTER IV.—LOVE AND DEATH.

Above these organisms in the scale of creation comes the insect,89

Its individuality is explained; its mode of reproduction,90

The insect-mother dies in producing her offspring,91

But with extraordinary sagacity has provided for its support and protection,92

Examples given of this wonderful maternal provision,93

The labours of the mother-bee explained,94

Reference to the "Nymphs of Fontainebleau,"95

CHAPTER V.—THE ORPHAN: ITS FEEBLENESS.

The insect enters upon life naked and necessitous,99

But all its wants have been carefully anticipated,100

Night, however, is the great protection of the embryo,101

How it endeavours to guard against cold,102

In its necessities originate its various industries,103

After a time comes its season of trial,104

Of which it exhibits a marvellous presentiment, and for which it assiduously prepares,105

CHAPTER VI.—THE MUMMY, NYMPH, OR CHRYSALIS.

The meaning of the insect to the ancient Egyptians,109

The beetle was regarded as a symbol of Eternity,110

Has modern science swept aside the ancient poetry?110That it is not so, is shown by Réaumur's discoveries,111

Which show us the marvellous changes the insect undergoes,112

And how in each stage of growth the next is prefigured,113

However numerous or great the changes, the individuality is preserved,114

A future life is provided for, as in the case of the human embryo,115

CHAPTER VII.—THE PHŒNIX.

Out of gloom and obscurity emerges light,119

The metamorphosis takes place, but the insect is not at a loss,120

Nature furnishes each species with all its needs for the new life,121

Its vital intensity is revealed by the brightness of its colouring,122

Insects of gay attire are found in every region,123

Even among the snows of the Alpine peaks,124

BOOK THE SECOND.—MISSION AND ARTS OF THE INSECT.

CHAPTER I.—SWAMMERDAM.

The secret of the Insect World first discovered by Swammerdam,129

A comparison instituted between him and Galileo,130

His early years, his favourite occupations, and his collections of insects,131,132

To assist him in his investigations he invented the microscope,133

His patient labours rewarded by great discoveries,134

Yet in his own country he was not honoured; it was in France that his work met with due appreciation,135

Ardent devotion to science brings on premature decay,136

Dark clouds overcast his later years,137

He died at the age of three and forty,138

His work is carried on by Leuwenhoek and Malpighi,139

CHAPTER II.—THE MICROSCOPE: HAS THE INSECT A PHYSIOGNOMY?

In the infinitely little lurks a great attraction for man,143

Hence its study should be systematically undertaken,144

Michelet applies himself to his microscope,145

And examines the structure of an insect's wing,146

Next, he studies the organization of the ant,147

He describes what he saw,148

A complex apparatus, both for action and defence,150

What it is which separates us from the insect,151

CHAPTER III.—THE INSECT AS THE AGENT OF NATURE IN THE ACCELERATION OF DEATH AND LIFE.

The language of the insect in its immense energy,155

A glance is directed at the order of Nature,156

And it is shown that all forms of life must be kept within certain limits,156

Hence, one race preys upon another, and all Nature is a scene of incessant combat,157

In this work of destruction, and purification, the Bird and the Insect play an important part,158

The Coleoptera bring their surprising energies to the task,159

The insect-tribes are therefore great sanitary agents,160

The great Guiana ants afford an illustration,161

And the beneficent labours of the spider have secured the respect of the Siberians,162

CHAPTER IV.—THE INSECT AS MAN'S AUXILIARY.

The want of insect-labour induced the potato disease,165

Such is the dictum of an author, who thinks that the multiplication of small birds has been destructive to insect-life; but no such multiplication of birds has taken place, nor any such destruction of insects,165,166

The Bird and the Insect are the joint purifiers of creation,167

Some species of insects should be carefully preserved,167

A sketch is given of their multifarious labours,168

Of the services rendered by the scavenger-insects,169

Of the value of certain insects as food,170

As, for instance, in the case of the locust,171

The law of retaliation illustrated,172

CHAPTER V.—A PHANTASMAGORIA OF LIGHT AND COLOUR.

How does the insect express its intensity of vital force?175In various ways, but specially through its glowing hues,176

Which are displayed with a profusion that astonishes and almost overcomes the observer,177

But are not inconsistent with an ingenious mimicry,177

A diversion is made to the tropical forest,178

Where the insect life is seen in its most splendid developments,179

Like winged flames they haunt the leafy shades,180

The fire-fly lights up the gloom, and also furnishes woman's beauty with a living ornament,181,182

CHAPTER VI.—THE SILKWORM.

The exquisite structure of a woman's hair enlarged upon,185

What can compare with it? Only the silkworm's thread,186

Peculiar charm attending the silkworm's labours,186

And the preciousness of the silken product,187

Something is said about the use of silk in Mediæval France,188

And on its excellence and fitness as a garment for Beauty,189

CHAPTER VII.—INSTRUMENTS OF THE INSECT: AND ITS CHEMICAL ENERGIES, AS IN THE COCHINEAL AND THE CANTHARIDES.

Hitherto the writer has treated only of the silk of the bombyx,193

He now commends the culture of other silk-spinning species,194

And is led to speak of the ingenious instruments with which insects are provided,194

And of their general powers and properties,195

Something is said about their weapons,196

And the malalis is spoken of,197

CHAPTER VIII.—ON THE RENOVATION OF OUR ARTS BY THE STUDY OF THE INSECT.

The Fine Arts would profit by a close study of the insect,201

Much might be learned, for instance, from the cockchafer's wing,202

Nature is full of suggestive beauty,203

Observe the enamels of the cicindela,204

And those of the scarabæi,205

Instead of copying from antique absurdities, go then to the insect-collector's cabinet,206

And its treasures will inspire the artist with new ideas,207

CHAPTER IX.—THE SPIDER—INDUSTRY—STANDING STILL.

We come to the consideration of the spider,211

Whose life is a lottery, and which is branded with ugliness,212

It is, however, the type of the persevering worker,213

An anecdote in illustration of its character,214

Its web, and the mode of its construction, described,215

Prudence and patience the characteristics of the spider,216

All animals live by prey, and the spider has its foes,217

Its existence is confined within a narrow circle,218

And is easily terminated,219

CHAPTER X.—THE HOME AND LOVES OF THE SPIDER.

Admirable construction of its web,223

A glance at the retreat of the Agelena,224

Still greater ingenuity is shown by the Mygale,225

In the web lurks the weaver, always expectant,225

A sensitive being, and subject to fancies of terror,227

In his moments of love he is timorous and suspicious,228

How he is affected by musical sounds,229

BOOK THE THIRD.—COMMUNITIES OF INSECTS.

CHAPTER I.—THE TERMITES, OR WHITE ANTS.

The habitations of the termites, erroneously called White Ants, described, both externally and internally,235,236

A wonderful degree of skill shown in the erection of the great dome,237

Yet the builders labour under specially difficult circumstances,238

Their queen's fecundity; her offspring are tenderly treated,239

Their numbers would be a terror to man, were they not checked by many enemies,240

An illustration is given of their terrible ravages,241

CHAPTER II.—THE ANTS:—THEIR DOMESTIC ECONOMY—THEIR NUPTIALS.

Value of the ants as purifying and cleansing agents,245

An incident at Barbadoes,246

The carpenter-ants, and their ingenuity, described,247

Singular affection which they display for the young,251

They watch over them with incessant vigilance; their mode of inter-communication,251

A picture is given of the economy of an ant-hill,252

In their labours the ants solve numerous problems by sheer intuition,253

Their nuptials described as an idyllic poem,254

What remained in the morning,255

CHAPTER III.—THE ANTS: THEIR FLOCKS AND THEIR SLAVES.

The writer's pain at discovering among the ants the existence of slavery,259

Considerations which induced him to continue his studies,260

He finds that the ants keep their "herds of cattle,"261And discovers a reason for their apparent encouragement of slavery,262

Mixed communities of ants; workers and warriors,263

The workers are in reality the masters, though they seem to be slaves,264

A campaign described; red against black,265

Ant-societies regulated on the principle of division of labour,266

Their species undergo modifications in special circumstances,267

The influence of intellect over brute force exemplified,268

CHAPTER IV.—THE ANTS: CIVIL WAR—EXTERMINATION OF THE COMMUNITY.

It is the punishment of the tyrant that he cannot readily set free his captive,271

The caged nightingale, and the clod of earth,272

This clod proves to contain a republic of carpenter-ants,272

An effort is made to found a new community; difficulties in the way,273

An encounter between the carpenter-ants and some mason-ants,274

In which the victory is on the side of the Little,275

Who carry off the young of the conquered,276

A digression comments on the helplessness of the nymph, or larva,277

And points out its exceeding suffering in the hands of a victorious enemy,278

The writer is shocked by the relentless cruelty of the conquerors,279

Who have left but one poor fugitive to mourn the death of his companions,280

CHAPTER V.—THE WASPS: THEIR FURY OF IMPROVISATION.

Sensation caused by the intrusion of a wasp,283

A panegyric on a much-abused insect,284

Excessive industry of the wasp,285

It works, first, as a paper manufacturer; and next, as a mason,285

It builds its city with curious forethought and ingenuity,286

The mother-wasp, a remarkable example of self-sacrifice,287

Wasps distinguished by their patriotic enthusiasm,288

At the approach of winter they dissolve the commonwealth,289

CHAPTER VI.—"THE BEES" OF VIRGIL.

The Virgilian fable of Aristæus misunderstood,293

Intended by the poet as a parable of immortality,294

The writer was accidentally led to an understanding of its true significance,295

A visit to the cemetery of Père-Lachaise,295

Here certain lonely graves were haunted by a flight of bees,296

Yet they were not true bees; they were two-winged,297

They were "the Bees" of which Virgil had sung,298

CHAPTER VII.—THE BEE IN THE FIELDS.

Contrast between the Plant and the Animal,301

Yet the one life in some points approaches the other, and a certain sympathy exists between the flower and the winged insect,302

What the flower owes to the bee,303

And how far the bee is indebted to the flower,303

A panegyric upon the bee, which gives new life to vegetation,304

The bee's visit to the flower, and what takes place,305

It gives and it receives; evening and morning,306

How the bee suffers from cold, keen airs,307

"Farewell, madam, and many thanks!"308

CHAPTER VIII.—THE BEES AS ARCHITECTS: THE CITY.

Artistic character of the bee-hive,311

Its government democratic, or a modified constitutional monarchy,312

The writer traces the foundation and erection of the hive,313

Its division into cells, and their differences of construction,314

The thoughtful skill of the builders illustrated,315

As in their improvised defence against the ravages of the Sphinx Atropos,316

Which may be accepted as a proof of the intelligence of insects as distinguished from instinct,317

CHAPTER IX.—HOW THE BEES CREATE THE PEOPLE AND THE COMMON MOTHER.

Care of the bee for the nymph, or larva,321

As it grows, so does its wonderful organization develop,322

Special care bestowed on the future queen,323

The queen bee has attributes of its own,324

Her rage, when she becomes aware of the existence of possible rivals,325

The community divided between the old love and the new,325

An emigration takes place,325

And a new commonwealth is established,326

Sometimes the old queen and the new encounter one another,327

In which case a deadly combat ensues,328

And the victor becomes the idol of the people,328

If both perish, the community, in a state of great excitement, proceed to feed and bring up another,329

Whom they will guard with loving loyalty,329

CONCLUSION.

A comparison, and a contrast, between the bee and the ant,333

All insects teach certain noteworthy lessons,334

And, primarily, a reverence for life,335

Various anecdotes from the writer's own experience are here brought forward, in defence of the thesis that life is more precious than science,336

Illustrative Notes,341

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